Quarantine rules impose unfair costs on foreign students

Re: “Student: Quarantine rules discriminatory” (Jan. 2 story). We lend our support to the issue addressed by Dalhousie law student Ziad Lawen regarding the isolation requirements for international students.

As president of the Students, Staff and Faculty Alliance (SSFA), I share these concerns that stem from the Department of Labour and Advanced Education’s recent requirement that universities have “oversight responsibility for international students during their quarantine, whether on or off-campus.”

It is our understanding that several Nova Scotian universities are passing this cost on to the international students, requiring them to absorb fees of up to $1,800 for room and board at designated hotels, in addition to the extremely high tuition fees that they already pay.

This seems unnecessarily punitive for students who contribute academically, culturally, and economically to our communities. While we understand the need for selfisolation, it seems unfair, and frankly, biased, to require this degree of supervision, while their Canadian counterparts are permitted to isolate in their own residences.

We have written to Lena Metlege Diab, the minister of Labour and Advanced Education, to encourage her to work with universities to find equally safe but less expensive ways for international students to quarantine, or to provide funding for those students who must isolate in this manner.

To date, there has been no response from the minister, and no financial help during the pandemic for post-secondary education from either the federal or provincial governments.

Further, it appears that while the majority of university courses are available online, enabling some students to remain in their home countries for now, doing so may put students at risk of violating the rules around their work permits/visas and may affect their immigration status through no fault of their own.

This would seem counterintuitive to the Nova Scotia government’s policy of championing Nova Scotia “as a leader in international student experience while advancing social and economic growth in our province.”

We call on Ms. Metlege Diab and university administrators to meet again to rectify this unjust isolation requirement and its punitive cost to our international students.

Scott Stewart is president, Students, Staff and Faculty Alliance. Formed after the declaration of the COVID-19 pandemic, the SSFA represents 20 unions or associations with over 20,000 college and university employees and students across the province, all of whom are essential to the work of higher education in the province.