Government Of Liberia Strangulates Bilateral Students In China
BEIJING – The government of Liberia has for nearly nine months reneged on remitting allowances to bilateral students in China, thereby strangulating them and making life nearly impossible for them. Some of the students who are due to graduate this June complained that they have incurred liabilities due to government failure to remit their allowances on time and as such, they need to settle these liabilities before leaving China upon their graduation this June. Some of them even stated that they have their passports in pawn because they needed money to sustained themselves in the absence of their allowances. They said their study life is unbearable because they are consumed by the fear of uncertainties with regard to their sustenance allowance. As it is illegal for foreign students to work in China, they said they have no other means to fend for themselves.
While they applauded the government for sending their return tickets and baggage allowance, they said it is insensitive for this government to ignore their nine months’ allowance. We have been anticipating our nearly nine months’ allowance to facilitate our resettlement back to Liberia after our graduation. After studying in China for three to four years, we have to come back and start a whole new life from scratch. Without our allowances, where does this government expect us to come and start life from? How do they expect us to settle the liabilities we have incurred here over the years due to their delay in remitting our allowances? How do they expect us to find places to rent upon our return? Some of the students ask rhetorically.
For the past months, every diplomatic and civilize effort to get the government to address our plight has yielded no meaningful result. Every time we engage the relevant authorities at the Ministry of Education and Finance, we are told the check has been sent for signing. More than six months now, they keep telling us the check is on the Minister desk for signing. We think this insensitivity is cruel, awful, inhuman and demonic; and it should have no place in any civilized society.
We are therefore appealing to President Weah and Minister Tweah to please act with the utmost urgency to remit our allowances in the soonest possible time to avoid any embarrassment to the GOL student community in China.
Any attempt to ignore our plight in this dying minute, we will gather en-mass at the Liberian embassy in Beijing on June 7, 2019, to call international humanitarian organization, human rights organization and the world’s attention to our plight.