South Africans have been fleeing from the Russian invasion of Ukraine where reports have emerged suggesting that Africans have been deliberately targeted for racist mistreatment and in some instances shot at, APA can report on Monday.
These incidences of Africans coming under fire bY Polish border guards have not been independently verified by APA but the South African government urged its citizens in the troubled Ukraine to avoid using the Polish border due to alleged racist treatment from Polish officials manning the demarcations towards Africans.
South African envoys in both Poland and Ukraine are trying to assist their compatriots to leave the country but the move is proving to be problematic.
Pretoria has not issued any instructions to evacuate them from Russia and Ukraine, according to reports.
A video shared on social media by a group assisting South Africans to leave the country also warned that Ukrainian police were stopping foreign nationals from leaving the country, particularly at the Medyka border with Poland in the country’s northwest.
Kelebogile Makoro, who is a South African stuck at Poland’s Medyka border crossing expressed her ordeal in a post: “There is a separation that has been happening, whereas Ukrainians are being treated better than Africans.”
“We, as Africans, aren’t. We’ve been pushed. We’ve been shoved. We are denied access to cross the border. And there are so many of us compared to the Ukrainians,” the post said.
It added: “Ukrainians get special treatment (by allowing them inside the buildings), while the Africans wait outside in the cold in big numbers.”
“You get people from Congo around here — a lot of Africans. You get Africans from Rwanda here. It’s just a mess at the moment,” the post said.
Reports of alleged African maltreatment at the Polish borders have been rampant since the Russian invasion started in Ukraine five days ago.
Pretoria has strong historical and recent ties with Russia as both countries are members of the Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South African (BRICS) economic bloc.
NM/as/APA