The night the mob came to the hostels: Bishkek, 17–18 May 2024, and the thousands of South Asian medical students who flew home

Bishkek is the largest hub in Central Asia for South Asian medical students: tens of thousands of Indians, Pakistanis and Bangladeshis study in its universities, drawn by low fees and English-medium courses sold energetically by agents at home. On the night of 17 May 2024 the city's hostels became the story.

According to Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty and The Diplomat, a brawl in a dormitory in the early hours of 13 May between a handful of local men and Egyptian students, reportedly over a demand for cigarettes, was filmed and spread online. Four days later, in the early hours of 17 May, hundreds of Kyrgyz men stormed hostels housing foreign students and attacked the South Asians inside. The violence continued into 18 May. The Diplomat and Wikipedia's account of the riots record 29 people injured, with fifteen taken to hospital; Pakistani students interviewed by RFE/RL described "a living hell". The Kathmandu Post reported hundreds, and by some counts thousands, of foreign students leaving the country in the days after; Pakistan's deputy prime minister said the number of Pakistani students fleeing was expected to exceed 4,000 and the government organised evacuation flights. The Tribune reported the Indian embassy telling its students to stay indoors while the situation was contained.

Nobody sold a fake seat here. The case is on this site because the sales pitch for Kyrgyzstan, cheap, easy, safe, leaves out the part of due diligence that the students of May 2024 paid for: the conditions under which foreign students live. Hostels with no security, universities with no crisis plan, embassies that could advise but not protect, and an agent who had already been paid and was not answering the phone.

Before choosing any country, ask the questions the brochures skip. Who is responsible for the hostel and what security does it have? What did the university do for foreign students the last time there was trouble in the city? Is there an embassy or consulate in the city, and does it maintain a student registry? The families who could answer those questions in May 2024 got their children out faster. The ones who had trusted a "student coordinator" learned what the title was worth.