Africans In Ukraine Face Racism From Authorities As They Flee

Several blacks living in Ukraine, many of whom are exchange students, report being locked out as they tried to board a train to escape the war.

Why is it important: Racist incidents – some documented on video as the hashtag #AfricansInUkraine flooded Twitter – have added personal agony to the desperate exodus across the country.

Zoom: Among the more than 1.5 million people who fled Ukraine after the Russian invasion is Alexander Somto Orah, a 25-year-old Nigerian student who told Axios he witnessed three separate incidents of racial discrimination against evacuees by Ukrainian authorities during the long journey from Kyiv to Ukraine. Warsaw.

At the Kiev railway station Police said they would prioritize entry for women and children, Or said. But they denied access to a group of African women, some of whom were pregnant, even as the African men begged the authorities to let them through.

At the railway station in Lvov, the officers said only citizens of Ukraine could pass, “but I saw them take only white people,” Orakh said. Authorities did not respond when he and others approached them to ask how they knew who the Ukrainian was without checking passports, he recalls.

On the border of Ukraine and Poland, whites and non-whites were separated by a barricade, Orach said. The authorities allowed the white group to move quickly and in large numbers, largely ignoring the people of color.

Ora said white Ukrainians and Poles were kind and helped their non-white fellow refugees: “The only problems were with the authorities.”

Officials in Ukraine and Poland furiously rejected was racist and proposed the reports were part of Russian disinformation campaigns.
But Ukraine, in what appears to be confirmation of the reports, said on Wednesday that it had created hotlines help “African, Asian and other students who want to leave Ukraine”.

Decrease: Stories like Or’s have raised fears that Eastern Europe’s often forgotten minority groups may be treated as second-class refugees.

Europe is recovering from the fastest mass migration on the continent since World War II.
The governments of Nigeria, Ghana, Kenya, Gabon and African leaders condemned the incidents, with the African Union calling them “shockingly racist and in violation of international law.”

Attack on Colored Refugees who arrived from Ukraine by Polish white supremacists last week, first reported by the Gazeta Wyborcza (Polish) newspaper, could heighten concerns about how refugees of color will be treated.

Local police in Poland acknowledged the attack but warned of false reports of violence against refugees aimed at keeping them from coming.

Context: Kimberly St. Julian-Warnon, a historian and doctoral student at the University of Pennsylvania who studies the black population of Ukraine, told Axios: “Unfortunately, for someone who has been working in this region for more than 10 years, this is not surprising.”

“What do we see is the culmination of the racism that has always existed in this region, and it is exacerbated by the chaos of war,” St. Julian-Warnon said of reports of discrimination as people fled Ukraine.
racist groups St. Julian-Warnon said they would most likely dare to commit acts of hatred in the chaos of war. Even though they represent the population of their countries, they attract huge media attention.
St Julian Warnon, who has spoken to black students who have fled Ukraine since the war began, said they have seen less discrimination since condemnation began pouring in from around the world.

What are we watching: Marta Udo is a London-based Polish-Nigerian lawyer who co-created the Instagram page @blackispolish, which aims to create awareness and community among Poland’s relatively small black population.

She and three other black Poles. who run the page provided resources for black Ukrainians wishing to evacuate and found accommodation upon arrival.
Udo told Axios More than a hundred people in Poland told the group they were ready to host a refugee, she said, a sign that Poles would be sensitive to all refugees. After the invasion, the country took in almost a million refugees.

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