Nigeria condemns treatment of Africans trying to flee Ukraine
Government says citizens are being denied entry into Poland amid growing reports of discrimination
Emmanuel Akinwotu and
Weronika Strzyżyńska
Mon 28 Feb 2022 17.46 GMT
The Nigerian government has condemned the treatment of thousands of its students and citizens fleeing the war in Ukraine, amid growing concerns that African students are facing discrimination by security officials and being denied entry into Poland.
A deluge of reports and footage posted on social media in the past week has shown acts of discrimination and violence against African, Asian and Caribbean citizens – many of them studying in
Ukraine – while fleeing Ukrainian cities and at some of the country’s border posts
They are among hundreds of thousands of people trying to escape the country as civilian casualties and destruction mount.
More than half a million people have fled Ukraine since the Russian invasion began last week, according to the UN’s refugee agency, UNHCR.
The Nigerian president, Muhammadu Buhari, said on Monday: “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,” citing reports that Ukrainian police had obstructed Nigerians.
“From video evidence, first-hand reports, and from those in contact with ... Nigerian consular officials, there have been unfortunate reports of Ukrainian police and security personnel refusing to allow Nigerians to board buses and trains heading towards Ukraine-Poland border,” he said.
“One group of Nigerian students having been repeatedly refused entry into Poland have concluded they have no choice but to travel again across Ukraine and attempt to exit the country via the border with Hungary.”
Nigeria’s special adviser to the president on diaspora affairs, Abike Dabiri-Erewa, said: “Africans are being denied entry through the Ukrainian borders. The minister of foreign affairs, Geoffrey Onyeama, has taken this up with the Ukrainian ambassador. Our people who want to leave must be allowed to.”
Amid chaotic and emotional scenes at Ukraine’s borders with Poland, as well as Romania and Belarus, where a number of African governments have advised citizens to head to, the treatment of African and Asian people has caused outrage.
Many African students have condemned the difficulties they have faced trying to escape the conflict, reporting hostility from security forces, ordinary Ukrainians and border staff.
Samuel George, a 22-year-old Nigerian software engineering student, drove from Kyiv, along with four of his friends, fellow students from Nigeria and South Africa, to the Polish border. Queues of cars full of people trying to leave spanned 31 miles (50km) to the border. Yet when some men who were in the queue noticed they were Africans, he said, they stopped their vehicle.
“They immediately saw that the Ukrainians could pass but when they realised we weren’t Ukrainians they stopped it. They told us we couldn’t move forward and wouldn’t let us join the queue,” George said.
When they tried to defy them, he said the men attacked and vandalised their windscreen. “They demanded $500 – we begged and negotiated to pay $100. We had to leave the car and trek. We were walking for almost five hours to the border with Poland. One of us was sick. The temperature was freezing, it was so tough
Government says citizens’ access to Polish border impeded amid growing reports of discrimination
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