If Nigerian student Kenneth Onojeta had not turned to lawyers, he would have been deported from Ukraine $3,000 poorer and without a degree or an explanation why.
If Nigerian student Kenneth Onojeta had not turned to lawyers, he would have been deported from Ukraine $3,000 poorer and without a degree or an explanation why.
A student at the Medical University in Luhansk in eastern Ukraine since 2007, Onojeta said he was expelled from college last year after missing classes, but reinstated after agreeing to retake some courses.
But having paid $3,000 in advance for a year of study and handing in his passport to receive a visa extension, he was called in by the local police, taken to court and handed back his travel document with a deportation stamp inside after refusing to pay a bribe.
Only with the help of lawyers was he able to overturn the decision.
Rights activists claim that Ukraine’s messy legislation and corrupt education, law enforcement and judicial systems are making life miserable for people like Onojeta, one of a growing number of students from China, India and countries in Africa who want a good education at a price cheaper than in Europe or the U.S.
Kenneth Onojeta, a Nigerian student at a Ukrainian medical university, is one of the few foreign students to take his fight against alleged extortion to court (Yaroslav Debelyi).
Many of the 45,000 foreign students in Ukraine pay agents to arrange their studies, but end up getting ripped off.
Halyna Bocheva from the human rights group No Borders, which is helping Onojeta, said his case is typical of universities, migration authorities and the study agency trying to squeeze money from a student by threatening him with deportation.
I spoke to some African students from the National Aviation University who paid their agent for a year of study, but the agent gave only half of that money to the university and disappeared with the rest.
– Nina Vyshnevska, head of Antal Agency
“I spoke to some African students from the National Aviation University who paid their agent for a year of study, but the agent gave only half of that money to the university and disappeared with the rest,” said Nina Vyshnevska, head of Antal Agency, which recruits students from the Democratic Republic of Congo.
“Many universities do not take money from students and work just through intermediaries. Everyone is connected,” said a Kyiv Post source in law enforcement, speaking on condition of anonymity because this officer is not authorized to speak publicly on the matter. He added that education of foreigners is a “real mafia business in Ukraine.”
Students detail a culture of bribery that pervades the whole process of studying in Ukraine.
“Usually if you are expelled from the university, the agency asks for around $5,000 so that your visa will be extended anyway. Next semester, the university takes you back and forges the documents and grades as if you were never even gone,” said a second-year student from China who studies in Kyiv and is too afraid of retribution to be quoted by name.
Students also say that a deportation stamp, like the one Onojeta received, can be “revoked” for $3,000.
Onojeta decided instead to fight his deportation in court, which ruled that he did not violate any law and the decision to order him deported was illegal.
However, his troubles may not be over.
A deputy head of the Migration Service, Oleksandr Plyots, said the agency will not revoke its decision as Onojeta had no legal reason to be in Ukraine after being expelled from university on July 16, 2010.
Usually if you are expelled from the university, the agency asks for around $5,000 so that your visa will be extended anyway. Next semester, the university takes you back and forges the documents and grades as if you were never even gone.
– Second-year student from China
The head of Luhansk Medical University, Valeriy Ivchenko, said the Nigerian student was expelled only on Nov. 1, 2010.
“Kenneth is not at fault for what happened. He was expelled from university for no reason, then he was taken back, he paid for his study and was to re-sit one subject,” said Bocheva from No Borders.
Inspired by Onojeta, another foreign student in Ukraine, Biantoussa Tadi Colombe from Congo, is considering suing her college and migration authorities.
She arrived in 2010 to study at the College of Communications in Kyiv, and her problems started when it became known that she was pregnant.
Colombe said college authorities asked her to pay Hr 11,500 ($1,500) for medical insurance, although she was already covered by a student policy as required by law.
When she refused, she got her passport back with a deportation stamp. According to Colombe, nobody even explained what the stamp was about [it was in Ukrainian] and that she was already expelled from college.
The head of the foreign students department at the college, Tatyana Kalugina, said she wanted no responsibility in case something happened to the student: “She had no money and she needed to have insurance that would cover her pregnancy.”
Kyiv Post staff writer Svitlana Tuchynska can be reached at tuchynska@kyivpost.com.
