A report by the “New York Times” revealed that many Africans were subjected to racist and cruel treatment on the border with Ukraine, adjacent to the European Union, as they fled the country.

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AndIn a report, “The New York Times” was quotedLarge numbers of Africans living in Ukraine “were stranded for days on crossings to neighboring European Union countries, suffocated in the cold without food and shelter, and detained by the Ukrainian authorities, which pushed them to the end of a long war. They even beat the lines while allowing the Ukrainians to pass.” .
Cheney Mbagu, a 24-year-old Nigerian doctor living in the western Ukrainian town of Ivano-Frankivsk, told the newspaper in a phone call with a “shaking voice” that he was “stuck at the border for more than two days”. While allowing passage in the town of Medica between Poland and Ukraine, the guards passed the foreign Ukrainians, but prevented it.
“Ukrainian border guards wouldn’t let us pass… they were beating people with sticks, taking off their jackets, slapping, hitting and pushing them all the way to the end of the line, the scene was horrendous,” he added.

President of the African Union and Nigeria, Muhammadu Buhari, condemned the treatment of Africans fleeing Ukraine after reports on social media that border guards were preventing them from leaving and were prevented from boarding trains to the border.
Ukraine’s deputy interior minister, Anton Herashchenko, denied that his country had prevented foreigners from leaving, while the union said “reports that Africans were being targeted with unacceptable differential treatment would be horribly racist” and would violate international law.

According to the “New York Times,” the Nigerian doctor Mbagu managed to reach Warsaw, but said he “crossed the border only through suffering and moving on,” adding: “Only women and children, they said. , And whenever a black woman tried to pass, they said…our women first…no shelter from the cold…snow..no food, no water. , or a place to rest…literally from insomnia I was crazy.”
The newspaper quoted the doctor as saying that his “21-year-old brother, who is a medical student, has been prevented from crossing the border since Friday, but arrived in Poland after a four-day trial.”

According to local charities in the region, son Within a few days, some of the foreigners who came to Poland from Ukraine got sick and froze, and some were taken directly to hospitals with injuries.

Ahmed Al-Haboubi, a 22-year-old French-Tunisian medical student, explained to the New York Times that “all foreign nationals, including Africans, Israelis, Canadians, and Americans, are asked to go to a gate at Medica.” The point is to cross from Ukraine to Poland.” This will only handle four people every two hours, Ukrainians are allowed to pass freely through another gate.”
In a phone call, he added: “The Ukrainian army hit me so hard that I couldn’t walk properly. When I finally managed to get into Poland, the Polish authorities took me straight to the hospital. It was complete chaos. They were treated like animals and there are still thousands of people. They are stranded there.” He added that Poland “welcomes him warmly”.

“While thousands of foreigners, including Zambians, Namibians, Moroccans and Indians, were led to one of the mostly closed doors and Pakistanis, another door was open for Ukrainians and people were pouring in,” Denis Nana Appiah Nkansah, a Ghanaian medical student, told the newspaper.
“For about three hours, there was a ‘huge influx’ of Ukrainians crossing the border, while four or five foreigners were allowed to go,” he said. “It’s not fair, but we understood that to see their people first.”

Nkansah, 31, said he organized a group of 74 students from Ghana and Nigeria and hired a bus to escape together, and they arrived at the border early Saturday morning but took 24 hours to cross.

The newspaper reported that Emmanuel Nolo, 30, a Nigerian electronics student at Kharkov National University, “when he tried to get on a train going west towards the border in Ukraine, Ukrainian officials told him, “Blacks can’t get on the train, explaining who was forcing his way, and that he and his cousin were in charge. .

“Taha Daraa, a 25-year-old Moroccan student in his fourth year studying dentistry at the Dnipro Medical Institute, started his journey at noon on Saturday and crossed the Romanian border early Monday morning, days later. We were mistreated. We got on the bus to the Romanian border,” the newspaper reported. .. It was very scary. Then we had to cross the border when we heard the gunshots. All we did was pray. The parents also prayed for our safety.. It is protection.” The only thing we love.. I saw a lot of racism,” he said, “he was in a group with other Moroccans and many other Africans, and he asked one of them. Ukrainian border guards let them pass. The guard tried to scare them away. started shooting into the air, and they retreated.”
And Taha Dara continued, “I’ve never felt so much fear in my life.. He wanted us to come back. It was snowing on us, and as the crowd grew, they surrendered and let everyone pass.”

Source: “New York Times”