WASHINGTON. Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has forced tens of thousands of people to leave their homes and flee abroad to escape the violence. But unlike the refugees who have flooded Europe with crises over the past decade, they are welcome.
Countries that resisted for years taking in refugees from the wars in Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan are now opening their doors to Ukrainians as Russian forces launch a nationwide military offensive. The United Nations estimates that perhaps 100,000 Ukrainians have already fled their homes, with at least half of them crammed into trains, blocked highways or on foot to cross their country’s border in what officials warn could be the next refugee crisis. in the world.
UN and US officials described their concerted diplomatic efforts to get Ukraine’s neighbors and other European countries to respond to the outpouring of need. President Biden is “definitely willing” to accept refugees from Ukraine, White House press secretary Jen Psaki said Thursday, but she noted that most of them would probably choose to stay in Europe so that it would be easier for them to return home after the fight is over.
“A heartfelt thanks to the governments and peoples of countries that keep their borders open and accept refugees,” said Filippo Grandi, head of the UN refugee agency. He warned that “many more” Ukrainians are moving towards the borders.
This means that thousands of people will end up in countries led by nationalist governments that, during past crises, were reluctant to accept refugees or even block them.
In Polandgovernment officials, assisted by US soldiers and diplomats, set up processing centers Ukrainians. “Everyone who flees from bombs, from Russian rifles, can count on the support of the Polish state,” said Polish Interior Minister Mariusz Kaminsky. told reporters on Thursday. His government spend hundreds of millions of dollars on the border wall, the project started after refugees and migrants from the Middle East tried to reach the country last year, but ended up in neighboring Belarus.
Military in Hungary allows Ukrainians to pass through closed sections of the border. Hardline Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban previously called for refugees a threat his country and his the government was accused cells and starve them.
Far West, Austrian Chancellor Karl Nehammer said that “Of course, if necessary, we will accept refugees” in light of the crisis in Ukraine. As recently as last fall, when he was interior minister, Mr. Nehammer tried to block some Afghans seeking asylum after the Taliban toppled the government in Kabul.
“It’s different in Ukraine than in countries like Afghanistan,” he said. was quoted during an interview on a national television program. We are talking about helping neighbors.
Mr Nehammer also said the number of Ukrainians seeking help is expected to be relatively small. At least 1.3 million people – mostly from Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan – applied for asylum in Europe in 2015 during what many considered to be the worst refugee crisis since World War II, straining national budgets and backlashing political nativism in countries across the continent.
By some estimates, at least a million refugees will leave Ukraine because of the Russian invasion. Linda Thomas-Greenfield, the US ambassador to the UN, said on Thursday that the fighting can displace up to five million people“pressure on Ukraine’s neighbors”.
Diplomats and experts say that European states that are willing to accept Ukrainians may be trying in part to draw attention to Russian aggression against civilians by offering a humanitarian response. “If you think of the refugee crisis as one of Putin’s tools to destabilize the West, then a calm, efficient, orderly response is a really good rebuke to that,” said Serena Parekh, professor at Northeastern University in Boston and director of her political, philosophical and economic program.
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February 26, 2022 8:52 AM ET
“On the other hand,” says Ms. Parekh, who has written extensively about refugees, “it’s hard not to notice that Ukrainians are white, mostly Christians and Europeans. So in a sense, the xenophobia that has really emerged in the last 10 years, especially after 2015, does not play a role in this crisis, as it did with refugees coming from the Middle East and Africa.”
The Biden administration is also facing calls to take in Ukrainian refugees, in much the same way it granted residence permits or humanitarian parole. over 75,000 Afghans when the Taliban seized power in August.
It is unlikely, at least for now, that the United States will offer Ukrainians a humanitarian parole program in excess of what is currently allowed for the total number of adopted refugees in the current fiscal year. This number is limited 125,000 this year – including 10,000 refugees from Europe and Central Asia. The guidelines set aside an additional 10,000 places for refugees from any part of the world if regional emergencies so require.
Ms. Psaki did not comment on a reporter’s question about whether the administration would offer temporary residence protection, a program known as TPS, to Ukrainian students, workers, and others in the United States to ensure they are not deported upon expiration. their legal visas. .
Understand Russia’s Attack on Ukraine
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What is at the heart of this invasion? Russia considers Ukraine a part his natural sphere of influence, and is unnerved by Ukraine’s proximity to the West and the prospect of Ukraine joining NATO or the European Union. Although Ukraine is not part of either, it receives financial and military assistance from the US and Europe.
Are these frictions just beginning now? Antagonism between the two countries has simmered since 2014, when Russian troops crossed into Ukraine after an uprising in Ukraine replaced a Russian-friendly president with a pro-Western government. Then, Russia annexed Crimea and inspired separatist movement in the east. A ceasefire was signed in 2015but fighting continued.
How did Ukraine react? February 23, Ukraine declared a state of emergency for 30 days. when cyberattacks took out state institutions. After the attacks began, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky martial law declared. The foreign minister called the attacks a “full-scale invasion” and called on the world to “stop Putin.”
“The war in Ukraine is exactly the type of crisis that TPS was created for – to allow people to live and work in the United States when they cannot return home safely,” said Sen. Bob Menendez, Democrat of New Jersey and chairman of the Committee on international relations, said Thursday night.
Ms Psaki said the United States has sent about $52 million in humanitarian aid to Ukraine over the past year to help people, mostly in the east of Donbass, where the current war began as a low-key conflict between the Ukrainian military and Russia. supported the separatists in 2014. Nearly 1.5 million people were displaced from their homes by the fighting even before last week’s invasion.
In addition, the US Agency for International Development sent a team of disaster experts to Poland last week to assess the demand for aid in the region, including water, food, shelter, medicine and other supplies, and to coordinate its delivery. Hours after the invasion began, the United Nations announced that it would send $20 million in emergency funds for humanitarian aid to Ukrainians, mostly in the Donbass.
A European diplomat who has closely watched the flow of refugees from Ukraine said neighboring countries could also feel the pull of history as they welcome people at risk from Russia’s aggression. Soviet suppression Hungarian uprising of 1956for example, led to 200,000 refugees, most of whom fled to Austria before being settled in dozens of European countries. 80,000 to 100,000 people – and perhaps even more – left what was then Czechoslovakia to escape the Soviet invasion in 1968, which was undertaken to silence pro-democracy. Prague Spring protests.
In both cases, the United States sent aid to European countries to house refugees, and during the Hungarian crisis, “for months there were no more refugees—a permanent home was found for them,” Ms. Parekh said.
According to her, this was largely the result of the cooperation of the United States with European states to resettle Hungarians, calling these efforts “a historical historical exception.”
“We were motivated by the same thing – the flight of people from our Russian enemy,” she said.