THE AFRICAN COURIER. Reporting Africa and its Diaspora! The African Courier is an international magazine published in Germany to report on Africa and the Diaspora African experience. The first issue of the bimonthly magazine appeared on the newsstands on 15 February 1998. The African Courier is a communication forum for European-African political, economic and cultural exchanges, and a voice for Africa in Europe.
A group supporting Africans who had fled the war in Ukraine and are currently seeking refuge in Germany has launched a series of online information sessions.
The webinar series, implemented by the non-profit organisation Horizon Resource Network under the auspices of ‘Help for Africans from Ukraine in Germany’ (HAUG), is to provide an orientation guide to the affected Africans, who number in the thousands and are mostly students. HAUG, an all-African community forum, was initiated in March to support Africans displaced by the war in Ukraine.
The webinar series commences on Monday (24 October) with a legal advisory session that will focus on the situation in Hamburg. The city introduced a regulation six months ago which gives international students from Ukraine a 6-month transitional residence permit. By the expiration of the permit, the recipients are expected to have found a way to regularise their stay in the country by, for example, fulfilling the requirements for a student visa.
Unfortunately, most have not been able to attain the requirements for the visa or other forms of regular residency in Germany. A Hamburg-based legal practitioner will explain the legal situation in the city and answer the questions of the participants.
On Tuesday (25 October), a second webinar will focus on the legal situation in Berlin. Berlin also introduced a regulation granting temporary visa to the third-country students similar to the one in Hamburg.
A practising lawyer based in Berlin will also explain the situation in the city and take the questions of the audience.
The director of a nursing school will address African students on the training opportunities in the nursing care profession in Germany on Thursday (27 October). If students are able to gain admission into a nursing school, they could be granted a regular residence permit for the purpose of receiving training.
The HAUG webinar series, which will hold until December, will continue next week, focusing on issues such as on how to apply for admission at Germany’s tertiary institutions and meet the requirements for student visa, the opportunities presented by the dual vocational training system and how to find accommodation.
The series was necessitated by the unclear residency status of non-Ukrainian refugees from Ukraine in Germany. Most of the affected Africans are seeking to continue their studies in Germany.
The temporary residency rights granted to third-country nationals fleeing the conflict vary between the federal states.
In Berlin, Bremen and Hamburg, international students who could prove they were enrolled in Ukrainian universities at the time the war broke out are granted a six-month transitional visas to give them time to meet the requirements for the issuance of regular permits. Most of the other states aren’t offering any residency rights to the non-Ukrainian refugees, especially those who had temporary residency status in Ukraine before the war, rendering them undocumented in Germany.
According to the Lighthouse Reports, the award-winning collaborative journalism project, there were nearly half a million third-country nationals living in Ukraine before the war out of whom only 54,443 had been offered temporary protection in the EU as at end of September.
Femi Awoniyi
THE WEBINARS
24 October: Virtual Legal Advice for Africans from Ukraine in Germany
Special Focus on Hamburg
Time: 7-9 pm (German Time)
Link to join the webinar: https://us06web.zoom.us/j/85122728457?pwd=VkRLaW1jRWJ0dzRFa2ZMSms1RmYvdz09
ID: 851 2272 8457
Passcode: haug
25 October: Virtual Legal Advice for Africans from Ukraine in Germany
Special Focus on Berlin
Time: 7-9 pm (German Time)
Link to join the webinar: https://us06web.zoom.us/j/88069087234?pwd=VnpiN0J3ZWY5RTBTNCtMTHVqVW1vZz09
ID: 880 6908 7234
Passcode: haug
27 October: Opportunities for Training in the Nursing Care Profession in Germany
Time: 7-9 pm (German Time)
Link to join the webinar: https://us06web.zoom.us/j/85372553007?pwd=ekJ0eXh2YmJESEdVeG85bmM2Zm5jQT09
ID: 853 7255 3007
Passcode: haug
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