Nigerian Government Condemns Racist Treatment Of Africans Fleeing Ukraine

On Monday, the Nigerian government called out the “unfortunate reports” of Ukrainian police “refusing to allow Nigerians to board buses and trains” headed toward Ukraine’s border with Poland.

With around 4,000 Nigerians, mostly students, “stranded” in Ukraine, the Nigerian government said, there have been reports of Polish officials refusing Africans entry into Poland.

“It is paramount that everyone is treated with dignity and without favour,” Nigeria’s presidential office and residence said in a statement on Twitter. “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.”

South Africa’s head of public diplomacy echoed similar concerns that South African students and other Africans “have been badly treated” at Ukraine’s border with Poland.

The South African foreign office official shared a video of a woman at a Ukrainian border town saying Africans waiting to cross were being “pushed,” “shoved” and “denied access,” forced to wait in the cold as Ukrainians got “special treatment.”

One Nigerian man, identified only as Isaac, told BBC News that Africans were being “chased back” and hit by police “armed with sticks,” and said border officials had told them they were “not tending to Africans.” Another Nigerian, Osemen, told the news outlet that only Ukrainians were being permitted to board a train in Lviv to the border with Poland.

A group of Congolese students told Canada’s CTV News that Africans were being “put aside” until border guards processed Ukrainians, and were told that “Ukrainians go first.”