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African Refugees In Ukraine Turned Away
In the midst of a war in which thousands of people are fleeing Ukraine, one kind of refugee has been turned away. African refugees, many of whom are medical students and families, have been turned away at the Polish border.
And for seemingly no reason other than the color of their skin.
It’s extremely upsetting and frustrating and tragically predictable.
“These People Are Europeans”
Bulgarian Prime Minister Kiril Petkov made a statement on this issue.
And it’s not great.
“These are not the refugees we are used to… these people [Ukrainians] are Europeans.
“These people are intelligent, they are educated people.
“This is not the refugee wave we have been used to, people we were not sure about their identity, people with unclear pasts, who could have been terrorists.”
Now, if you resist the “I need to vomit” response to that quote for but a moment, you can KIND OF understand Petkov’s perspective.
Ukrainians are their neighbors. They know them. They’ve spent centuries and generations by one another and even maybe have a shared genetic whatever.
But that’s not really the point of accepting or rejecting refugees, is it? The point of refugees is to accept a downtrodden, desperate person in need of help regardless of where they’re from.
And hiding behind the “they might be terrorists” label is stupid. Think about it. If you were a terrorist, would you bother waiting in line to be accepted into a country? It’s a long, long, long, long con that’s too long to be effective – if you’re into the whole terrorism thing.
All Refugees Need Help. Not Just The White Ones.
Ukrainian refugees need our help. African refugees need our help. Syrian refugees still need our help. There isn’t one refugee seeking asylum or shelter that doesn’t need our help. To turn them away because they don’t live one country over is absolutely absurd.
The sad truth is that, no matter what you do or how hard you try, there will always be suffering in the world.
But we can and will do better than this.