Monday 21 March 2022

It's Not Our Responsibility...

Two weeks ago, Alani Iyanuoluwa fled Kyiv as the Russian invasion intensified. Making her way across Europe, the 24-year-old hoped to be reunited with family in London. Yet for 10 days she has been stranded in a French port – because she is Nigerian.
Iyanuoluwa is among a growing number of refugees who claim the British government is ignoring black people who fled Ukraine.

No, the UK government is - quite rightly - ignoring non-Ukranians. You've got another option, haven't you? 

Iyanuoluwa is staying with two other Nigerian students in Boulogne-sur-Mer. All three fear returning to Nigeria because of the dangers of kidnapping and trafficking...

Really? So, you planned to stay in Ukraine forever? Yet never applied for citizenship, I note...  

“We’re coming from war and they are telling us that without a Ukrainian passport we can’t come to the UK, but the UK should consider all residents living in Ukraine when the war started,” she said.

Why should it? And why should the situation in Ukraine provide you - and the others - with a convenient back door into a UK that wouldn't be likely to grant you a visa in peacetime? 

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

Doesn't she know any Nigerians wh have millions in the bank and just want someone's UK bank details to transfer it to?

Macheath said...

Would Alani be the previously anonymous 24-year-old medical student described in the Guardian’s earlier articles, I wonder? If so, there is a certain irony in the fact that medically trained staff from the UK are preparing to travel to the region in order to provide much-needed help with illness and injury among the displaced population while her priority appears to be travelling n the opposite direction as fast as possible.

In a similar vein, I wonder what these Ukrainians of African origin feel about being the only men between 18 and 60 on trains leaving the country. One such, interviewed recently, self-righteously attributed the ‘hostile stares’ of the other passengers to racism, as opposed to, say, resentment that their own husbands and sons had stayed behind to risk their lives.

While I’m here, I’d like to propose a toast to the seventy-something war veteran interviewed at a border station by the BBC. Asked for his opinion of Putin describing Ukrainians as fascists, he burst into genuine laughter, waved an eloquent hand towards the exhausted multitude of women, children and frail elderly people crowded onto the platform behind him, clutching the few belongings they had been able to carry; “And he says WE’RE the fascists?”

Ed P said...

Perhaps some Juju will help? I understand it's still big in Nigeria, not only with the ignorant and uneducated, but even with some government ministers.

Northish said...

One of the reasons Putin wants the Ukraine is for its wheat production. He knows that the combination of climate change and the increasing world population* mean that world food shortages are inevitable. The UK can sustainably feed about 25 million people and we are probably over 80 million already.

We really don't need any more thank you.


*covid took out 6 million, but the global population went up by 140 million in the same time.

Stonyground said...

The climate change alarmists have been predicting a reduction in grain production for decades. Back here in reality land, grain production continues to increase worldwide.

JuliaM said...

"Doesn't she know any Nigerians wh have millions in the bank and just want someone's UK bank details to transfer it to?"

😂🤣

"Would Alani be the previously anonymous 24-year-old medical student described in the Guardian’s earlier articles, I wonder?"

Given their unerring accuracy in picking losers, I wouldn't be a bit surprised...

"The climate change alarmists have been predicting a reduction in grain production for decades. Back here in reality land, grain production continues to increase worldwide."

Let's hope so - we must think of the vegans!