Monrovia – Some 26 Liberian students are currently stranded in China with no means to meet their daily needs due to the undue delay by the Liberian government to remit the over 8 months living allowance.
The students traveled to China as part of a bilateral agreement between the government of Liberia and China. As per the bilateral agreement between the government of Liberia and China, the Chinese government is providing a full tuition waiver and accommodation while the government of Liberia is to provide the students with their monthly living allowance.
The students are now struggling to survive as the government is reneging to live up to its part of the agreement for the past 8 months. Currently, it is prohibited for students studying in China to do any form of part-time jobs, the students are left with no other option to meet their daily needs but to appeal to the government of Liberia to pay their over 8 months living allowance due them. The situation has led to student risking their scholarship to seek undercover part-time jobs, if caught by the Chinese authorities, their scholarship would be canceled immediately and they would be deported.
If this situation of Liberian students seeking undercover part-time jobs continues to persist among Liberian students and the Chinese authorities continue to detect it prevalence among Liberian students, they might consider limiting the numbers of Liberians students coming to China for studies or canceled the bilateral agreement with the Liberian government.
Mr. Jacob Arku Ziama who is the focal person for the GOL bilateral students studying in China said for the past several months, every effort to get the relevant authorities to address their situation has yielded no result. We have written the Liberian embassy in Beijing and made several formal and informal communication to the ministry of Education in Monrovia and the Inter-Ministerial Scholarships that is in charge of GOL bilateral scholarship. The Ministryof Education and the inter-ministerial committee informed us several months ago that they submitted our allowance budget to the ministry of finance for approval and onward disbursement, but were informed that the government currently has a laundry list of competing priorities and limited resources. Since then, we have been making constant follow-ups, but have been informed that the allowance budget is at the ministry of finance for approval.
“We are therefore appealing to President George Weah, Minister Samuel Tweah and authorities at the ministry of finance to please see reasons to make our allowance available in the soonest possible time to mitigate the suffering we are undergoing here. We are in a foreign country and we do not have anyone here to turn to for assistance neither are we allowed to do part-time jobs here. We are in a very tight position with no options available to us. We cannot concentrate on our studies for which we left our families and country to travel here.
“One of our colleague who is the only Liberian student studying in the Chinese city he is in, recently fell seriously ill and the student community here had to rally around their meager resources to help him seek medical attention. The Chinese government provides medical insurance, but the insurance policy is that you have to spend the first ¥600 or $100 USD and the insurance company will only refund you the amount the exceeds first ¥600 or $100 USD. Our colleague could not go to the hospital because he did not have this amount of money and if it wasn’t for God and the Liberian student community here our colleague would have died in his dormitory room.”
Students have had their electricity, internet, and water cut off because they cannot afford to pay their bills, while other students cannot travel to conduct their research because of the lack of funds. The Liberian government needs to tell us how is it possible to study under this kind of humiliating condition. We think it is a complete waste of time to be here if the government cannot provide us the basic things we need to make our studies less stressful. It is unfortunate and regrettable that we have to be treated in this form and manner far demeaning of any human being. We think no other human being deserves to be treated in this form and manner, and we are therefore asking the government for immediate redress.
The students are currently pursuing their graduate studies at various Chinese universities in fields such as Electrical Engineering, Structural Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, Mining Engineering, Geotechnical Engineering and Architectural Engineering, GIS (GeoIformation Production and Management, GIS Land Resource Management, GISSoil Survey and Agriculture Management, GIS in Survey and Geodesy) and Computer Science/Programming.
As per the agreement between the students and the government of Liberia, this is not just some goodwill or humanitarian gesture by the government of Liberia, as the students are required to work for the government upon their return for a period doubling the time of their study.
Meanwhile, 21 of their colleagues who just returned to Liberia from China in 2018, faced similar humiliating condition in China and had to return home without receiving their living allowance arrears. The 21 students are currently languishing in Liberia finding it impossible to receive their living allowance arrears and resettlement benefits from the government.
Again we are appealing to the conscious of the government of Liberia to please address our situation with the utmost urgency to enable us to continue with our studies in the form and manner befitting of human beings.