Ukrainians fleeing the war now have a one-year permit to stay in the European Union. But we can stay here for 90 days until we figure out our next step. That’s only three months.
Going home is not an option, because Nigeria is kind of worse. They’re having their own war as well, even though it’s not in the news. It’s tiring to leave one war just to end up in another. I feel drained. But we need to continue on, and keep moving forward.
We’re trying to figure out if we can transfer to different schools. Here in Romania, you need to know the language before they accept you in their classes. I’m studying medicine and I’m in my fifth year. I need to do my clinical rotations and I need to talk to patients.
There are very few programmes in English or that wouldn’t require a complete restart. English-language medical programmes in Ireland, for instance, are accepting Ukrainian refugees as transfer students but are not extending the offer to international students who fled from the same war.
It’s a very tough situation right now.