African refugees trying to flee Ukraine report racism at border crossings
A number of African refugees fleeing Ukraine have reported being harassed as people were “struggling to get onto buses” to escape the conflict.
https://www.news.com.au/world/europe/af ... 9b896142c3
Nigeria, South Africa and other African governments scrambled on Monday to help their citizens escape the Russian invasion in Ukraine after reports of racist and unfair treatment of Africans at border crossings.
Africans in Ukraine, many of them students, are among hundreds of thousands of people trying to flee into Poland and other neighbours.
African Union leaders voiced concern at the reports of mistreatment of Africans caught up in the Ukraine conflict and said such conduct would be “shockingly racist”.
According to 26-year-old medical student Korrine Sky, who has been active on Twitter encouraging donations for refugees, black people are “struggling to get onto buses”.
Ms Sky said she just arrived in Lviv after escaping the now deteriorating situation in central Ukraine.
“Some of the locals are ‘prioritising’ Ukrainians and black people are struggling to get onto buses, facing hostility or being denied at the border,” she told The Independent.
“As a community we are generally fearful of armed police and being frequently stopped by people with guns is terrifying. I think I’m running on adrenaline at the moment; I’m assisting people while on the road so I need to remain calm so I can support others.”
The current chair of the African Union, Senegalese President Macky Sall, and African Union Commission head Moussa Faki Mahamat said they were “particularly disturbed by reports that African citizens on the Ukrainian side of the border are being refused the right to cross the border to safety”.
“Reports that Africans are singled out for unacceptable dissimilar treatment would be shockingly racist and in breach international law,” they said in a statement.
All countries should “respect international law and show the same empathy and support to all people fleeing war notwithstanding their racial identity”, the added.
Nigeria’s Foreign Minister Godfrey Onyeama said the evacuation of the country’s nationals would start on Wednesday.
Earlier, presidential adviser Garba Shehu had urged Ukrainian border officials to treat Nigerian citizens equally after reports they had been stopped from boarding buses and trains to the border.
Shehu referenced a video on social media showing a Nigerian mother with a young baby being physically forced to give up her seat.
There had been also reports of Polish officials refusing Nigerian citizens entry into Poland from Ukraine, he added.
“All who flee a conflict situation have the same right to safe passage under UN Convention and the colour of their passport or their skin should make no difference,” said Shehu.
South African foreign ministry spokesman Clayson Monyela meanwhile tweeted that a group of his country’s nationals, mainly students, was stuck at the Ukrainian-Polish border.
The South African ambassador to Warsaw was at the site trying to get them through, he added. On Sunday, Monyela said Africans were being “treated badly” at the Polish-Ukraine border.
“Everybody receives equal treatment. I can assure you that I have reports that already some Nigerian nationals have crossed the border into Poland,” she told local media.
Nigerians could stay for 15 days, and even invalid documents were being accepted to cross the border and Covid-19 restrictions were lifted, she said.
Some Nigerians who made it across the borders described having been made to wait as officials gave priority to Ukrainian women and children.
“One of the officers came and told us it’s harder for us foreigners because they have to get in touch with our government in different countries,” Stephanie Agekameh, a medical student now in Poland, said by text message.
Speaking from Korczowa in Poland, Nigerian managerial sciences student Agantem Moshe, said Ukrainian police had pushed Africans out of the way to make way for women and children.
“From the Polish side it was smooth, they were professionals. In Ukraine, they kept us outside in the cold,” he said.
The UN said that more than half a million refugees from Ukraine had so far crossed into neighbouring countries.
Nigeria’s embassy in Bucharest said it had received 130 Nigerians from Ukraine, with more being processed having reached Warsaw or Budapest.
Ghana’s government said it would meet parents of students stuck in Ukraine on Tuesday and sent embassy officials to border points to help.
DR Congo Foreign Minister Christophe Lutundula said on Twitter he would meet with the Polish ambassador to help with the passage across the border of about 200 Congolese, mostly students.
Ivory Coast, which according to state media has 500 nationals in Ukraine, said it was also making arrangements for their evacuation.
Kenya’s foreign affairs ministry said last week around 200 Kenyans were safe and accounted for but that some were stuck at the Polish border because of visa restrictions.
Nigerian accountant Lukmon Busari said his son, a fourth-year medical student, was already out after waiting for a day on the Polish border.
Black Push Back: African Students Stranded on the Polish/Ukraine Border in Medyka
https://www.gaynrd.com/blacks-pushed-ba ... in-medyka/
Government officials in Nigeria and South Africa are expressing concern that their citizens are being stopped from leaving war-torn Ukraine. At Lviv train station, in western Ukraine, FRANCE 24 met several African students who say they were pushed back at the Medyka border crossing with Poland.
[Editors Note: as a descendant of Polish Nationals I can confirm that Eastern European racism, particularly in Poland and Ukraine are very real and exacerbated by immigration/migration issues and the current Ukraine war crisis with Russia likely to get worse with the arrival of more refugees.]
FRANCE 24:
African governments on Monday were scrambling to help their nationals escape the Russian invasion in Ukraine as reports emerged of racist and unfair treatment of their citizens at the border with Poland.
The reports, denied by both Polish and Ukrainian officials, have cast a pall on the massive evacuation effort that has already seen half a million civilians cross into the European Union.
While some Africans have been able to leave Ukraine, FRANCE 24 spoke to several students on Sunday at Lviv train station in western Ukraine who said they were turned back by Ukrainian border guards while attempting to cross into Poland.
“They stopped us at the border and told us that Blacks were not allowed. But we could see White people going through,” said Moustapha Bagui Sylla, a student from Guinea. He said he fled his university residence in Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second-largest city, as soon as the bombing began.
Like thousands of Ukrainian civilians scrambling for the border, the young Guinean said he walked for hours in freezing temperatures heading for the Polish frontier village of Medyka – only to be ordered to turn back.
Another student from Nigeria described similar scenes at the border crossing. He said his group, which included women, was shut out of the border post even as White people were let through.
“They won’t let Africans in. Blacks without European passports cannot cross the border (…). They’re pushing us back just because we’re Black!” said the Nigerian student, who gave only his first name, Michael. “We’re all human,” he added. “They should not discriminate against us because of the colour of our skin.”
According to Bagui Sylla, the Ukrainian border guards said they were merely following instructions from their Polish counterparts – a claim denied by officials in Warsaw.
Anna Michalska, a spokesperson for the Polish border guards, said she had spent “the past two days denying such allegations”.
“I don’t know what is happening on the Ukrainian side of the border, but we let everyone in regardless of nationality,” she told FRANCE 24.
In a later communiqué, Polish officials confirmed that no visas were required to cross the border and that identity cards and passports would be accepted, even when expired.
A spokesperson for the Ukrainian border guards also denied reports of discriminatory practices.
Civilians fleeing the war face increasingly dire conditions at the Medyka border crossing, as FRANCE 24 has previously documented. According to a report by the European Commission, the crossing can now take up to 70 hours.
For African students lured to Ukraine by the prospect of jobs and university degrees, being treated like economic migrants – rather than refugees displaced by war – is a devastating blow.
Nigeria’s government has advised its citizens leaving Ukraine to head for Hungary or Romania, instead of Poland. That is precisely what the students stranded at Lviv station said they planned to do.
Ukraine claims it is suffering humanitarian crisis but does nothing to the mistreatment of black refugees.
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