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Rabat – The German international cultural center, known as the Goethe Institute, suspended all scholarships for Moroccan students due to security concerns on Monday, September 30.
The Goethe Institute told Morocco World News that the decision came after three out of 14 Moroccan students from this year abandoned their studies and refused to return home, wanting to settle in Germany illegally instead.
The suspension of scholarships will continue until the situation is “further clarified.”
“We have to check how to avoid illegal stays,” the director of the Goethe Institute in Morocco, Susanna Baumgart, told Morocco World News. “For the 2020/2021 school year, we are considering a new start.”
The Goethe Institute also ended its scholarships for Afghani students in 2010 for similar reasons.
Students from all over the world can apply for scholarships to attend language courses in Germany through the institute. Fourteen Moroccan students were going to Germany every year via the scholarships since 2008. The students were high school age.
The scholarships covered accommodation as well as a stipend for other expenses. Education itself is free in Germany.
In recent years, Germany has had a surge of migrants from the region either overstaying or coming illegally. In 2018, Germany deported 826 Moroccans illegally staying in the country, up from 634 in 2017.
According to the German Interior Ministry, the number of immigrants Germany has deported to the Maghreb region grew nearly 14 times from 2015.
