Black immigrants fleeing Ukraine outline challenges to cross borders, gain refugee status

More than one million people have successfully fled across the Ukrainian border to neighbouring countries following the Russian invasion, but for some, leaving is not so easy.

Adesanya Adedoyin, a Nigerian medical student, spent four days trying to escape the ongoing war while also facing what he thinks were discriminatory practices.

He’s among the more than one million people who have fled across the Ukrainian border following the Russian invasion, according to the United Nations.

“I was waiting, waiting, waiting and then we realized we had to leave,” said Adedoyin. “It was crazy. I felt discriminated (against), I felt neglected.”

He spent two days at the Ukraine-Poland border trying to get out. At the border checkpoint on the Ukraine side, he and his Black classmates were pulled aside, where they waited several hours with no movement, he said.

“There were a lot of queues and there were lots of us in it. After a little while we were moved to a different queue with all the Blacks to one side,” Adedoyin said. “We didn’t move a lot after that.”

Many countries have opened their doors to refugees, which is a promising sign for refugees like Adedoyin. But there are some countries, like Bulgaria, whose Prime Minister Kiril Petkov has previously spoken about wanting to keep Syrian and African refugees out, that are now allowing Ukrainians to enter their borders.

Speaking to journalists earlier this week, Petkov said Bulgaria, which has previously rejected racialized minorities, is open to helping Ukrainian refugees during this time because they are Europeans.

“There is not a single European country now which is afraid of the current wave of refugees,” Petkov said, walking back his anti-migration stances to welcome Ukrainians.