Racism against Tunisians and foreigners at the Ukrainian-Polish borders

Students fleeing conflict in Ukraine report racist treatment at border crossings

US First Lady Jill Biden (L) speaks with Ukrainian refugees at a city-run refugee center in Kosice, Slovakia (POOL/AFP via Getty Images)

This article first appeared in our partner site, Independent Arabia

“The colour of your skin could determine whether you live or die”, says a Tunisian student in Ukraine highlighting the plight of foreign students from African and Asian backgrounds who were left stranded at Ukraine’s borders trying to flee the worsening conflict.

Mariam Al Amdouni, a student in Ukraine who managed to escape on the first evacuation flight arranged by Tunis said that she went through difficult times and was subjected to various forms of racism by the border police in the crossing between Ukraine and Poland.

She describes the conditions they endured making the journey from the city where she was living in Ukraine to the Polish borders as “terrifying”.

“We were so afraid. They left us out in the cold for four hours as we were waiting to cross into Polish territory,” she told Independent Arabia, adding that “the border police granted crossing priority to Ukrainian people over those from other nationalities such as Arabs and Africans”.

Mariam says that some of the students “set the clothes that they were carrying in their luggage on fire to keep warm”.

“We have no option”

Lina Zamouri, another Tunisian student, spoke of witnessing racism that at times escalated to violence and assault.

“The border police violently assaulted a Tunisian student and broke his leg,” she says.

Lina, who left Ukraine via the Romanian border, said that they were well-treated on the Romanian side and were lucky compared to their counterparts who had fled through Poland. Lina called on Tunisian authorities to act quickly in order to rescue those stranded on the borders.

Meanwhile, Mohamed Trabelsi, director of diplomacy and information at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Migration and Tunisians Abroad, confirmed that they had received a number of complaints from Tunisian nationals about the ill-treatment they faced.

“However, in these exceptional times we have no option but to focus on evacuating all Tunisians immediately from Ukraine,” he said. Trabelsi also mentioned that the African Union, of which Tunisia is a member, has issued a statement condemning racist behaviour against Africans in Ukraine.

“Dissimilar treatment”

The African Union condemned what it described as “dissimilar treatment” of citizens of its member states who had been residing in Ukraine and were seeking to flee the country after Russia’s military invasion. In the statement, the union denounced the treatment faced by African people in their attempt to escape Ukraine via its land border crossings and described these practices as a “breach of international law”.

The statement stressed that international law grants people of all nationalities and ethnicities the "right to flee" in a state of war.

However, in stark contrast, Sofiane Matoussi, president of the House of Tunisia in Ukraine, said that Ukrainian authorities at the Medyka crossing along the border with Poland “were behaving violently towards foreigners, particularly Arabs and Africans”.

Racist west

Complaints from the Tunisian community about the ill-treatment they had received in Ukraine sparked outrage among social media users and activists.

There were those who considered that this war exposed the reality of "the racist west”. In this regard, journalist Saghir Al Haydari believes that “there is an illusion that the West has some kind of racial superiority”. He adds that “the fact that they want Arabs, Africans and others to get killed instead of them clearly shows Western hypocrisy".

On the international level, Nigeria called on border officials in Ukraine and neighbouring countries to treat its citizens without any discrimination. In a video widely shared on social media, a Nigerian mother with a young baby was physically forced to give up her seat to someone else.

]Garba Shehu, senior special assistant on Media and Publicity to the president of Nigeria, confirmed that “there have been unfortunate reports of Ukrainian police and security personnel refusing to allow Nigerians to board buses and trains heading towards the Ukraine-Poland border”.

AFP reported that Joanna Tarnawska, Poland’s ambassador to Nigeria, refuted all accusations of unfair conduct against Africans and maintained that “everyone is getting equal treatment”.

“A complete lie and a terrible insult”

Responding to reports that there was a marked difference in the treatment of foreigners, namely those who originate from Africa and Asia, during the border crossing and in accommodation centres, Krzysztof Szczerski, Polish ambassador to the UN, stated that allegations about racial and religious discrimination are “a complete lie and a terrible insult to us”.

The diplomat stressed that “everyone fleeing the war in Ukraine can seek a haven in Poland”.

Tunisia was the first Arab country to successfully evacuate its citizens from Ukraine having guaranteed their safe passage through Romanian border crossings and flights from Bucharest.

Kais Saied, president of Tunisia, has also allocated an open-air bridge for the evacuation of any remaining Tunisians in Ukraine.

Reviewed and proofread by Tooba Ali and Celine Assaf