Is the West guilty of racial discrimination? By lamenting the death of “people with blue eyes and blond hair” we have turned Ukraine into a white man’s war, says a leading writer.
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Racism scandal of Ukraine refugee crisis
Is the West guilty of racial discrimination? By lamenting the death of "people with blue eyes and blond hair" we have turned Ukraine into a white man's war, says a leading writer.
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In February, Olufunmilola was studying medicine in the Ukrainian city of DniproA city in central Ukraine that has a particularly significant population of foreign students because of its well-regarded medical school.. When the Russian army invaded she reacted like many others. She tried to flee.
But her experiences after that were different from many other refugees. The reason: she is Nigerian and black.
When Olufunmilola got to the bus station she found many other foreign students like her. They explained that they had been waiting there for 12 hours while white Ukrainians were allowed on buses.
They were being discriminated against because of their nationality and the colour of their skin.
African and Asian people fleeing Ukraine are facing prejudice. They are treated badly both in Ukraine and in other countries.
In Poland, one Afghan was killed. Others reported being left in the freezing cold without food.
There were 76,000 foreign students before Russia invaded. A quarter of them were from African countries and 20,000 were Indian.
Many are still stranded in Ukraine. Those who escaped have discovered that other European countries are unwilling to take them in.
They are stuck in no-man's-land. They cannot go home and they cannot seek asylumWhen a state agrees to shelter somebody who is fleeing dangerous circumstances. The right to asylum is protected in international law by the 1951 Refugee Convention. in the countries where they have ended up.
"We are still confronted by an inability to properly conceive people from the global southA term increasingly used to describe less-developed countries, most of which are south of a line that separates, on different continents, the USA from Mexico, Europe from Africa, and Russia from central Asia and China. as humans if they are trying to flee war and persecution," says Alba Kapoor, the head of an anti-racism charity.
This week, filmmaker David Matthews argued that this is part of a bigger problem. He pointed out that refugees from countries like Afghanistan, Syria and South Sudan are treated less well as Ukrainians, who are mostly white.
Poland has taken in 2.9 million refugees from Ukraine. But the Polish prime minister said that his country "will not be receiving migrants from the Middle East and North Africa".
Critics say that this sort of attitude is dehumanising to non-Europeans, treating the suffering of those from other parts of the world as less important.
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Is the West guilty of racial discrimination?
Yes: The implication is clear. White European and Americans are blind to suffering unless the victims look like them.
No: It is tragic that some refugees have suffered from racism as well as displacement, but horrible things happen in the chaos of war. The fault is with Putin the warmonger, not the West.
Or... The whole idea of "the West" is part of the problem. Language like this divides humanity into an "us" and a "them" - the first step towards devaluing the humanity of those designated as outsiders.
Keywords
Dnipro - A city in central Ukraine that has a particularly significant population of foreign students because of its well-regarded medical school.
Asylum - When a state agrees to shelter somebody who is fleeing dangerous circumstances. The right to asylum is protected in international law by the 1951 Refugee Convention.
Global South - A term increasingly used to describe less-developed countries, most of which are south of a line that separates, on different continents, the USA from Mexico, Europe from Africa, and Russia from central Asia and China.
Racism scandal of Ukraine refugee crisis
Refugees from many diffrent countries - from Africa, Middle East and India - mostly students of Ukrainian universities are seen at the Medyka pedestrian border crossing in Poland fleeing the conflict in Ukraine Glossary
Dnipro - A city in central Ukraine that has a particularly significant population of foreign students because of its well-regarded medical school.
Asylum - When a state agrees to shelter somebody who is fleeing dangerous circumstances. The right to asylum is protected in international law by the 1951 Refugee Convention.
Global South - A term increasingly used to describe less-developed countries, most of which are south of a line that separates, on different continents, the USA from Mexico, Europe from Africa, and Russia from central Asia and China.