Africans Fleeing Ukraine Subjected to Discrimination

Africans fleeing the Russian invasion of Ukraine are suffering racism, with black refugees blocked from public transport and threatened at gunpoint by militiamen.

Unlike Ukrainians, many non-Europeans need visas to get into neighboring countries. Embassies around the world were scrambling to assist their citizens in getting through.

Some Nigerians who made it across the borders described frightening journeys in the dark to reach traffic-packed areas where they were made to wait for hours in the cold as officials gave priority to Ukrainian women and children.

A group of South Africans, mostly students, were stuck at the Ukrainian-Polish border, the country’s foreign ministry spokesman, Clayson Monyela, said on Twitter.

The South African ambassador to Warsaw was at the site trying to get them through, according to Monyela who said Africans were being “treated badly” at the Polish-Ukraine border.

“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 who made it through to Poland, said by text message.

Nigerian managerial sciences student Agantem Moshe, who crossed over into Poland, said Ukrainian police had pushed Africans out of the way to make way for women and children.

Osarumen, a father-of-three and a Nigerian national, said he and his family were asked to give up their seat on a bus headed out of Ukraine, with the driver and military officers using the phrase “no blacks” as justification. “This isn’t just happening to black people – even Indians, Arabs and Syrians,” he added, “and that shouldn’t be the case.”

Cihan Yildiray, a 26-year-old from Turkey who has been working in Kyiv, said Ukrainians passed through the border checkpoint more easily. He said he saw Black people and Arabs being beaten by Ukrainian guards.

The Ukrainian government has acknowledged that African immigrants seeking to flee the violence have faced racist, disparate treatment compared to white Ukrainians. Dmytro Kuleba, Ukrainian Foreign Minister, said, “Africans seeking evacuation are our friends and need to have equal opportunities to return to their home countries safely,” adding that Ukraine’s government “spares no effort to solve the problem.”

Several African governments have condemned the racism Africans have faced as they’ve sought to leave the war-torn country. Black people were kept from boarding buses and trains even as white Ukrainians were able to leave.

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.”

The African Union, which represents the 55 countries of the African continent, said Monday that “reports that Africans are singled out for unacceptable dissimilar treatment would be shockingly racist and in breach [of] international law.” The nations urged all countries to “show the same empathy and support to all people fleeing war notwithstanding their racial identity.”

“There should be absolutely no discrimination between Ukrainians and non-Ukrainians, Europeans and non-Europeans,” said Filippo Grandi, the United Nations’ high commissioner for refugees, adding that the international organization “plans to intervene to try to ensure that everybody receives equal treatment.”