UPDATE The doctor involved in the story told the CBC on Wednesday that he had received a letter stating that his application for temporary residence in Switzerland had been approved.
Dr. Mustafa Abdul Mumin never really believed in racism. People can get used to being around members of their own race, sometimes feeling uncomfortable around others, and to some extent this discomfort is normal and part of life, he said.
All this is already broken for him.
What the 27-year-old man saw and felt while trying to board trains in Ukraine – his eight-year-old home where he can practice general medicine and was months after specializing in orthopedic surgery – made him understand for the first time that he is different.
This realization was further encouraged by his home as he sat in an isolated Swiss emergency shelter in the mountains an hour and a half outside Bern, the capital of Switzerland.
He has been waiting in the former youth detention center for a month to find out if he will receive a temporary residence permit without speaking.
In an email, a spokesman for the Swiss State Secretariat for Migration wrote that most applications for these permits are processed in just a few days. But people who work to help foreign students fleeing Ukraine, such as Abdul Moomin, say people of color often wait much longer.
“I do not understand why”
In response to the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the Swiss government created a special protection status for fleeing Ukrainians – known as the S permit – allowing them to stay temporarily without having to apply for asylum.
The teaser? If you are not a Ukrainian citizen or you are dependent on one and your original home is considered safe, you do not qualify. Instead, you must apply for asylum and prove that you will be severely disadvantaged and specifically persecuted if you return home.
Why is there a different treatment … Anyone fleeing this war should be considered a refugee. – Gwen Madiba, co-founder of the Global Black Coalition
This leaves people like Abdul Mumin in trouble; his Ukrainian residence card does not give him any rights.
He would not face danger in his native Ghana, but said he no longer knew the country. His family lived in Côte d’Ivoire before moving to Ukraine as a young man.
He said that Ukraine has shaped him into the man he is now; he does not want to abandon it.
“Unfortunately, you are not Ukrainian and only at this moment do you realize that yes, you are different. I also appreciate the fact that I am different, but that does not mean that they should treat me the way I did in the morning, “Abdul Mumin said on Tuesday from the waiting area at the shelter.
“During each trial, you can see some level of discrimination, and I don’t understand why. I mean, we’re running from the same war. “
The process leads to racial inequality, defenders say
The system means that mostly white Ukrainian families are welcomed at the Swiss border with open arms and offers of accommodation from citizens, and many colorful Ukrainians are housed in sometimes highly isolated shelters with the threat of deportation looming over them, Gwen Madiba said recently. publication. interview.
She co-founded the Global Black Coalition to help students like Abdul Mumin.
Ottawa Morning 12:39 Helping Black Refugees Leave Ukraine
Ottawa resident Gwen Madiba is returning to Canada after being in Eastern Europe for several weeks to help black refugees fleeing Ukraine. She says many of them are international students who have experienced discrimination and racism while trying to cross the border. 12:39
“Many of them just don’t want to go back to their country because it was already difficult for them to get to Europe, to be able to continue their education in Europe,” Madiba said.
“And if they had to return [home]returning to Europe can be extremely difficult for them. “
It made me feel like I was born in the wrong place. ”- Dr. Mustafa Abdul Mumin
For the first time in Abdul Mumin’s life, he feels lost.
“Throughout the process [of fleeing]to each one [step]it made me feel like I was born in the wrong place, ”he said.
“I’ve worked so hard all my life to become what I am, to be educated as much as I can,” but it doesn’t matter what you offer. The important thing is that you do not have a Ukrainian passport.
“I lost my livelihood, I lost my job, I lost my plan. For the first time in my life, I don’t know where I’m going. I don’t know, I know what I’m doing … and being educated to that level and then you get to a state and they all reject it … it’s just too much to bear. “
One of the Swiss emergency shelters is in this arena in Bern. According to the Global Black Coalition, some international color students have been housed in shelters like the one for weeks without clear answers on whether they can stay. (Mike Evarist / Global Black Coalition)
For now, Abdul Mumin plans to wait a week at a Swiss shelter to say his application for an S permit. But someone else who has lived in Ukraine for 24 years has recently been rejected, so he doesn’t think he has much chance.
If he is rejected or continues to hear nothing, he plans to cancel his application altogether so that he can travel to Germany and try his luck there.
“You realize that all your life, you just have to keep fighting. There’s no time to rest … no matter how good you are, you have to keep fighting through everything you do. And it’s just sad, “he said.
“Anyone fleeing this war must be considered a refugee.”
Madiba says she recently returned to the Ottawa region after spending about a month traveling to six countries in Europe, including Switzerland, to meet people fleeing the war and try to help.
At the stations, humanitarian volunteers waved placards welcoming people who had fled Ukraine, “and what is heartbreaking is that you know that [the welcome is] not everyone and everyone should have an equal right to safety, “she told Ottawa Morning of CBC Radio earlier this week.
“It’s very difficult to see, it’s very difficult to live, and when you’re volunteering and trying to help them, it’s also difficult to understand why people are treated that way. Why is there a different treatment when everyone has to be considered a refugee? ”She said.
“Anyone fleeing this war must be considered a refugee.”
WATCH The struggle for access to protected status:
Some blacks are struggling to gain protection after fleeing Ukraine, the lawyer said
Gwen Madiba, co-founder of the Global Black Coalition, says members of the black community without Ukrainian citizenship face discrimination after fleeing the war, with more limited access to special permits and protection status in other European countries. 1:03
The Global Black Coalition is raising money to help some of these students. In Switzerland, they work with Nadra Mao of the Moko Society to provide help at emergency shelters.
Some students have been waiting for three weeks without clear answers as to what will happen to them, Mao said.
Some have had their passports and residence cards retained until they can prove they will leave the country, she added.
There is no answer to the question of racial differences
In an email, a spokesman for the Swiss State Secretariat for Migration wrote that as of last Thursday, the country had received 38,339 applications for an S permit and had submitted 31,413.
Eighty-six permits were refused. Asked how many people have been deported so far, the spokesman said only that people were allowed to stay for 90 days.
The spokesman did not answer a question about the racial differences stemming from her system, and wrote only that any person could apply for asylum and would be accepted “depending on the threat he faces”.
As for the applicants for housing permits in isolated rural areas, the State Secretariat for Migration had to “quickly open several emergency shelters to accommodate and care for the large number of refugees”.
In some cases, military infrastructure had to be used, which was available quickly and met the requirements. Most of the centers are in urban areas, the spokesman wrote.
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