Christian Ugwu, Nigeria’s ambassador to Poland, says Nigerians arriving from Ukraine risk being placed in detention camps if they don’t leave within 15 days after arrival.
A detention camp is usually a temporary holding ground for prisoners “pending determination of their legal status under immigration laws”. It can also be a place where people without proper documentation in a foreign country are kept for a short while.
The development comes amid the crisis in Ukraine following the invasion by Russia’s military forces.
The war has caused many Nigerians, including students, to flee Ukraine to neighbouring countries such as Poland.
Following the development, the ministry of foreign affairs had announced that visa-free access had been granted to Nigerians arriving Romania, Poland and Hungary from Ukraine.
Speaking on Wednesday in an interview with Channels Television on the current situation of Nigerians who recently arrived Poland from Ukraine, Ugwu said the visa-free access would lapse after 15 days.
“After 15 days of staying without visa, they will take them to detention camps. Many Nigerians are already in detention camps and we have been going there pleading for them to be released,” he said.
“I have addressed the Nigerians not to stay outside the hotel premises where we have accommodated them. By the time they go to the streets, the police will arrest them, and most of them do not have their passports with them.
“So, they have been advised to stay within their hotel premises until when the aircraft comes. But the problem we are envisaging is that many of them don’t want to leave Poland, and this is not possible.”
He accused Ukrainian officials of discrimination, adding that even embassy officials were restricted from accessing the border areas.
“I was there in all the crossing points. Discrimination is not the only word to use. In fact, in all the crossing points, they don’t allow the blacks to cross,” he said.
“Even we the embassy officials, they don’t allow us to get to the crossing points. There are places designated as evacuation centres. There are buses from the evacuation centres to the crossing points. And when you look at the buses, you hardly see any blacks on them.
“It is only during the midnight that you see blacks smuggling themselves to enter the buses. So, if they tell you that there is discrimination, that is very correct.
“This is a problem we are facing. We have thousands of blacks, Nigerians namely, that are stopped at the crossing points. The Ukrainians don’t allow them to cross. They will tell them to go back to Ukraine and go fight. This is what is happening.”
Meanwhile, President Muhammadu Buhari, on Wednesday, approved $8.5 million for the immediate evacuation of 5,000 Nigerians stranded as a result of the war.
