“Fleeing from the same war” in Ukraine, but treated differently: black doctor complains about the state of limbo in Switzerland
UPDATE | The doctor featured in this story told CBC on Wednesday that he received a letter saying his application for temporary residence in Switzerland was approved.
dr Mustapha Abdul Mumin never really believed in racism. People can get used to being with members of their own race, sometimes they feel uncomfortable around others, and to some extent that discomfort is normal and part of life, he said.
All of that is broken for him now.
What the 27-year-old saw and felt as he tried to board trains from Ukraine – his home of eight years, where he can practice general medicine and was months away from earning a specialization in orthopedic surgery – made him understand for the first time that he is different.
This realization became even clearer as he sits an hour and a half outside of Bern, the capital of Switzerland, in a remote Swiss emergency shelter atop a mountain.
For a month he has been waiting in the former youth detention center to find out whether he will get a temporary residence permit, still no word.
In an email, a spokesman for the Swiss State Secretariat for Migration writes that most applications for these permits are processed within a few days. But people who help international students flee Ukraine, like Abdul Mumin, say black people often wait much longer.
“I do not understand why”
In response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the Swiss government created a special protection status for fleeing Ukrainians – the so-called S-Permit – which allows them to stay temporarily without having to apply for asylum.
The coupling? If you are not a Ukrainian citizen or dependent and your original home is considered safe, do not qualify. Instead, you have to apply for asylum and prove that you would be seriously disadvantaged and specifically persecuted if you returned home.
Why is there a difference in treatment… Anyone fleeing this war should be considered a refugee.– Gwen Madiba, co-founder of the Global Black Coalition
That fails people like Abdul Mumin; his Ukrainian residence card does not give him any rights.
He would not expose himself to danger in his native Ghana, but said he no longer knew the country. His family lived in Côte d’Ivoire before he moved to Ukraine as a young man.
He said Ukraine shaped him into the man he is now; he doesn’t want to give it up.
“Unfortunately you are not Ukrainian and you only now understand that, yes, you are different. And I appreciate the fact that I’m different, but that doesn’t mean I should be treated for who I am,” Abdul Mumin said Tuesday from a waiting area at the shelter.
“You see a certain level of discrimination in every single trial and I don’t understand why. I mean, we’re fleeing the same war.”
Trial leads to racial disparities, supporters say
As a result of the system, mostly white Ukrainian families are welcomed at the Swiss border with open arms and offers of citizenship, and many Ukrainian blacks are housed in sometimes severely isolated shelters, who are threatened with deportation, Gwen Madiba said in a recent interview.
She co-founded the Global Black Coalition to help students like Abdul Mumin.
Ottawa morning12:39 p.mHelp black refugees get out of Ukraine
“Many of them just don’t want to go back to their country because it was already difficult for them to come to Europe to continue their studies in Europe,” said Madiba.
“And if they went back [home]Returning to Europe could be extremely difficult for them.”
It made me feel like I was born in the wrong place.– dr Mustapha Abdul Mumin
For the first time in Abdul Moomin’s life, he feels lost.
“Throughout the process [of fleeing]at each individual [step]it made me feel like I was born in the wrong place,” he said.
“I’ve worked so hard my whole life to become what I am, to be as educated as possible…but it doesn’t matter what you have to offer. What matters…is that you don’t 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 which direction I’m going, where I’m going. I don’t know what I’m doing… and being educated to that level and then you come into a country and everyone rejects you… it’s just too much to take.
For now, Abdul Mumin plans to wait out the week at the Swiss shelter to hear about his S permit application. But someone else there, who has lived in Ukraine for 24 years, was recently turned down so doesn’t see much of a chance for himself.
If he is rejected or still not heard from, he plans to cancel his application entirely in order to travel to Germany and try his luck there.
“You understand that all your life you just have to keep fighting. You don’t have time to rest… no matter how good you are, you have to keep fighting in everything you do. And it’s just sad,” he said.
“Anyone fleeing this war should be considered a refugee”
Madiba says she recently returned to the Ottawa area after touring six countries in Europe, including Switzerland, for about a month to meet with people fleeing the war and try to help .
In train stations, volunteers from aid organizations waved placards welcoming people from Ukraine, “and the heartbreaking thing is that you know it [the welcome is] not for everyone, and everyone should have the same right to safety,” she told CBC radio Ottawa morning earlier this week.
“It’s very hard to see, it’s very hard to live, and when you volunteer and try to help them, it’s also hard to understand why people are treated that way. Why is there a difference in treatment when they should all be considered refugees? ?” She said.
“Anyone fleeing this war should be considered a refugee.”
The Global Black Coalition has raised money to help some of these students. In Switzerland, they work with Society Moko’s Nadra Mao to provide shelter assistance.
Some students have been waiting for three weeks with no clear answers about what will happen to them, Mao said.
Some have had their passports and Ukraine residence cards confiscated until they can prove they will leave the country, she added.
No answer to the question of racial differences
In an email, a spokesman for Switzerland’s State Secretariat for Migration wrote that the country had received 38,339 S permit applications and approved 31,413 as of last Thursday.
86 permits were denied. When asked how many people are threatened with deportation so far, the spokesman only wrote that people are allowed to stay for 90 days.
When asked about the racial differences resulting from his system, the spokesman had no answer, only writing that any person could apply for asylum and be admitted “depending on the threat they face”.
As for housing S-permit applicants in remote rural areas, the State Secretariat for Migration “needed to quickly open several shelters to house and care for the large number of refugees.”
In some cases, military infrastructure had to be used, which was quickly available and met the requirements. Most of the centers are in urban areas, the spokesman wrote.