Ukraine exposes US and Europe’s blatant preference for white refugees

It took more than a month and a half, but finally the last remaining African students trapped in occupied Kherson, Ukraine, are said to have been evacuated from the city, weeks after video and images circulated showing Black evacuees in Ukraine being denied safe passage out of the warzone. 

In a blatant display of racism and shocking disregard of international law, even Ukrainian pets were given precedent over the lives of Black human beings trying to seek refuge from Russia’s invasion, sparking widespread outrage and concern.

According to the United Nations convention, anyone fleeing a war has equal right of safe passage, regardless of nationality and skin colour. What we saw at the Ukrainian-Polish border, however, was the opposite of this. Evacuees were segregated and prioritised along racial lines in an apartheid-like system of control that placed more value on the lives of white Ukrainians fleeing than Black and non-white international students.

 "Evacuees were segregated and prioritised along racial lines in an apartheid-like system of control that placed more value on the lives of white Ukrainians fleeing than Black and non-white international students"

Even in a life and death situation, racism apparently holds firm and for non-white people, basic humanity is non-existent.

However, it isn’t just the horrendous racism at the Ukrainian border that has revealed the disparities in the treatment of Black refugees compared with white Ukrainians.

Just days ago, US President Joe Biden publicly pledged that the United States would be willing to accommodate up to one hundred thousand Ukrainian refugees, in line with European leaders who quickly agreed to implement a never-before used emergency temporary protection directive in order to provide Ukrainian refugees legal status in EU countries, with access to education facilities and the right to work.

The solidarity and hospitality afforded Ukrainian refugees by European nations stands in stark paradox when compared with the treatment of refugees from the Middle East and North Africa, who in much smaller numbers sought the safety of Europe’s shores in 2015 (often fleeing wars instigated by Western governments). Unlike the Ukrainians, they were met with vile hostility and a shameful lack of empathy.

At Ukraine's border, Arab, Asian & African students have faced discrimination and been denied entry into neighbouring countries as they try to flee Russia's invasion.

Nyasha Bhobo pens her thoughts on Europe's reversion to default racism👇 https://t.co/246N1o2BNC

— The New Arab (@The_NewArab) March 6, 2022

In 2015, Black and Brown refugees migrating to Europe were viewed with such suspicion and hostility that rather than being viewed as a humanitarian challenge to be met, their very presence at Europe’s borders triggered a political crisis including the Brexit vote in the UK and the rise of far-right movements across the continent.

Those refugees were and continue to be treated by the majority of European governments as a political football.

Unlike the Ukrainians, refugees from MENA were not offered a fast track way for legal status, education or the job market. Despite these cold realities, the anti-immigrant sentiment that engulfed the UK and Europe was predicated on the false assumption that Black and Brown migrants were heading to Europe to steal jobs and housing while being unable to “culturally assimilate”.

None of this, of course, was true, and yet as millions of displaced Ukrainians enter Europe, they are welcomed as brothers and sisters with little or no concern about cultural or linguistic differences that took centre stage during the migrant crisis of 2015.

As with other European nations, President Biden’s decision to take in one hundred thousand Ukrainian refugees stands in stark contrast to the United State’s sentiment towards other refugees from non-white backgrounds, which has long been characterised by violence and xenophobia.

Just a few months ago, a relatively small number of Haitian refugees made their way to the US border, crossing into Texas, amassing at Del Rio. In a matter of days that number had increased to thirty thousand mostly Haitian refugees now packed into a makeshift refugee camp where conditions would be considered hazardous even before the outbreak of Covid-19.

While Ukrainians have been welcome to the United States, with a clear pathway to safety, housing and employment, those Haitians which had made an equally treacherous journey to the US were quietly deported back to Haiti in a matter of days.

The speed with which they were deported has been described as a clear breach of international law, justified by the controversial use of Title 42, an obscure part of US public health law which gives authorities the legal right to turn away people at the border if they are suspected of coming from an area with high Covid infection rates, before any opportunity to claim asylum can be made.

"All the denialism and political obfuscation in the world cannot hide the simple fact that there is a much greater value placed on the lives of white refugees from Europe, who are prioritised over other equally deserving people in need of help who simply happen to have darker skin"

What makes this even worse is that the United States is suspected by many to have played a leading role in creating the very instability causing Haitians to seek asylum in the US in the first place. In addition to the political turmoil in the country following the assassination of the Haitian president last year, Haitians are still reeling from the effects of the most recent natural disaster to hit the country.

So, what explains the difference in the treatment of Ukrainian refugees by Europe and the United States, compared with refugees coming from Haiti or the MENA region?

The answer is blindingly obvious. All the denialism and political obfuscation in the world cannot hide the simple fact that there is a much greater value placed on the lives of white refugees from Europe, who are prioritised over other equally deserving people in need of help who simply happen to have darker skin.

Richard Sudan is a journalist and writer specialising in anti-racism and has reported on various human rights issues from around the world. His writing has been published by The Guardian, Independent, The Voice and many others.

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Opinions expressed in this article remain those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of The New Arab, its editorial board or staff.