Racial intolerance? Nigerian students told to move out of flats in Mumbai

At least twenty five Nigerian students residing at an Aarey Colony complex were told to move out by real estate agents and their landlords within 15 days. The agents and landlords, in turn, said that they were acting on the instructions of the police.

A report in The Times of India said that police had directed the realty agents to notify the Nigerians to move out because many of them were allegedly involved in online crimes or drug-peddling.

While the police said that this move was just “a general instruction to the agents” to effectively check crime, the Nigerian students were clearly unhappy. “If the country does not want to allow Nigerians, they should make it clear. Why should students be punished for what one or two people have done? The regular embarrassment is not fair," the TOI report quoted a Nigerian student as saying.

According to another report in The Indian Express, the realty agents got a notice to not rent flats to Nigerians on 1 September. “We were called by the police on August 27 for a meeting and told that we must ask all the Nigerians to vacate the flats. We have to follow their instructions…Hence, we issued them a notice,” said real estate agent Ritu Borle in the report.

The report further added that the police even denied sending out any eviction notices to realty agents and landlords. “We do not have the power to evict people from their houses,” said Assistant Commissioner of Police (ACP) Kishore Jadhav in the report.