True Left

https://www.thedailybeast.com/refugees-from-other-wars-want-to-know-why-white-ukrainians-get-vip-treatment

Refugees From Other Wars Want to Know Why White Ukrainians Get VIP Treatment

Hint: it is not because they are Ukrainians.

ROME—The queue outside the Baobob refugee soup kitchen in central Rome is filled with desperate migrants and refugees every single day of the week. In recent months, most are from Afghanistan and war-torn African nations like Somalia, Sudan and the Tigray region of Ethiopia. There aren’t any Ukrainian war refugees standing in the cold, though. They have been welcomed into warm homes and care facilities. “They are white, so they get special treatment,” a man from Afghanistan who worked as a translator for Italian peacekeepers in Afghanistan before the Taliban regained control over the country told The Daily Beast as he crouched beside the tent nearby where he sleeps.

Correct answer!

The man doesn’t want his name published out of fear it will negatively impact his asylum request, which he launched more than a year ago. He and thousands of other war refugees in Italy are stuck in bureaucratic limbo that can take two or three years before they learn if they can legally stay even when they are from countries that have suffered longer wars than the four-week invasion of Ukraine, whose refugees do not have to go through the same process—even though they are not part of the European Union. Ukrainian refugees are automatically granted a right to stay for 90 days—no questions asked. If they want to extend the stay, they can apply for a 90-day extension.

While no one disagrees that Ukrainians need assistance and support as their country is besieged in this unfair war, there is a growing sense of a double standard when it comes to the color of refugees’ skin and their treatment.

Actually, I disagree. At minimum, Ukrainians should move to the back of the queue. Only when all refugees from chronologically earlier crises have been absorbed should we even consider what to do with Ukrainian refugees. Anything better for Ukrainian refugees is favouritism.

Andrea Costa, who runs the Baobab center in Rome, told The Daily Beast that while he agrees wholeheartedly that the Ukrainian refugees need help, so do the African and Middle Eastern refugees.

And the latter have needed help for much longer, and have waited for help for much longer, which is why they should not now have to be kept waiting even longer while "white" Ukrainian refugees do not have to wait at all!

And he sees hypocrisy in calling those helping Ukrainians “saviors” while those who save African refugees are often prosecuted for people smuggling, referring to a number of NGO rescue boat captains currently facing charges in Italy for rescuing migrants and refugees.

Very good point. Anyone still remember Mayor Lucano of Riace? He was a true saviour. This is what happened to him:

https://time.com/6104836/domenico-lucano-riace-mimmo-migrant-mayor/

How an Italian Mayor Who Turned His Town into a Haven for Migrants Wound Up Facing 13 Years in Jail
...
Lucano’s dream was to bring an abandoned place back to life by welcoming migrants — creating a community in Riace where they could live and possibly work while seeking asylum. And for over a decade, his dream became a reality for countless people arriving in Italy in search of a better life.

Yet on Sept. 30, Lucano’s life became a living nightmare. Judges sentenced him to 13 years and 2 months in jail, far in excess of anything sought by prosecutors.

The judges must think it's OK for Italy to be "white".

Back to the first link:

The discrepancy between “types” of refugees was made crystal clear in the days after Vladimir Putin invaded Ukraine. Thousands of Africans who were working and studying in Ukraine were stopped at the Polish border while white Ukrainians were quickly ushered through, according to Human Rights Watch.
...
At the Santa Sofia Ukrainian Church in Rome, organizers have had to turn people who are delivering supplies including clothing and medicine away due to the outpouring of generosity. “We have told them to give the excess to other refugee groups in the city,” a church official told The Daily Beast. “We are overwhelmed with donations.” Meanwhile the Baobob center regularly publishes its list of needs: canned food, children’s clothing and shoes, diapers, and medicine.
...
Back in Italy at the food line, there is little belief that the Ukrainian situation will make any difference to how war refugees from elsewhere are received.
...
Italy has allotted 13,000 places in refugee centers for Ukrainians. “We were wondering if there was a place to sleep even for Sudanese fleeing a civil war who has already seen the deaths of 300,000 people or for Afghans stranded from Europe on the border between Bosnia and Croatia. We asked ourselves if they deserve peace too. Beyond skin color, that’s it.” The Baobob group posted, noting that Italy set up a National Emergency Fund with €10 million to respond to the “serious crisis: The Ukraine one. Only the Ukrainian one.”

I am sure there exist other individuals like Lucano. I am also sure that if they try to do what Lucano did, they too will be imprisoned for it. This is why the focus has to first be on exterminating racists; only after that can we be practically effective in helping "non-white" refugees on a large scale.