The Federal Government has condemned the detention of Nigerians and other African students in Poland who fled war-torn Ukraine.
Chairman of the Nigerians in Diaspora Commission (NIDCOM), Abike Dabiri-Erewa, said on Thursday in Abuja that it was wrong and traumatic.
Mrs Dabiri-Erewa was speaking at the commencement of a two-day psychosocial trauma clinic for Ukraine returnees.
The clinic was organised by the National Commission for Refugees, Migrants and Internally Displaced Persons, NIDCOM and Project Victory Call (PVC) Initiative.
“Some Africans and Nigerians decided not to return home, now Polish authority is now going around and capturing blacks and putting them in detention camps,” she said.
“So, those Nigerians who refused to return are at a risk, some are in detention centres in Poland and they are in a traumatic condition.
“However, inasmuch as Nigeria has given them the opportunity to come back home and they refused, it does not mean the Polish authority will grab them and put them in detention centres.
“The Federal Government is now calling on the Poland authority to release the blacks in their custody.”
The NIDCOM boss added, “They are not putting whites in those detention centres, so send them back to their countries instead of capturing them in detention centres which is the height of racism in a war situation.”
The Student Union president of Nigerian students in Ukraine, Fehintola Moses, appreciated the Federal Government, especially the minister of foreign affairs Geoffrey Onyeama, whom he said personally reached out to him during the course of the repatriation.
