Editors of “The World”. Walls, fences and hostile policies – except in Germany – in 2015 to block the way to the Syrians; wide open borders and a special status today for Ukrainians. The shock of Russia’s aggression against Ukraine, the influx of hundreds of thousands of women and children fleeing the war, is upsetting Europe’s migration landscape.
It took only a week after the Russian offensive began for the 27 European Union (EU) countries, unable for decades to unify their policies and distribute welcome among asylum seekers, who decided to automatically grant, on Thursday, March 3, Ukrainian refugees “temporary protection”, which gives them the right to remain in the EU.
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We must applaud this demonstration of solidarity, this spectacular change in software. Europe, marked by a difficult history of anti-Nazi refugees brought to Germany, homeless people and imprisoned dissidents, is committed to welcoming the victims of a war waged for no reason against a sovereign state on its own continent.
Unfortunately, numerous testimonies report, on the border between Ukraine and Poland, on the one hand, and Hungary, on the other, discriminatory treatment of “non-whites”, mostly African students fleeing Ukraine.
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The election abstained at the United Nations on Wednesday (March 2nd) during a vote on a proposal to end Russian intervention in several African countries – including Senegal and South Africa – as a denunciation by African diplomats of this “double weight”, two measures “Translates malaise.
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In fact, the unexpected face of the Polish and Hungarian regimes, which closed their borders to Afghans and Syrians but now greet Ukrainians with open arms, betrays racist and anti-Muslim biases. Similarly, the 180-degree turn, led by right-wing and far-right politicians in Germany, France, Denmark or Italy, reflects the same fantasy of an exclusive and closed “white” Europe.
The intangibility of the principle
The universality of the right to asylum must be defended without reservation, including for anti-war Russians persecuted by the Vladimir Putin regime. The Geneva Convention relating to the Status of Refugees explicitly prohibits any discrimination “on grounds of race, religion or country of origin”. How can a law designed to protect specifically those who “have a well-founded fear of not being persecuted” and whose “life or liberty would be endangered” be discriminated against?
Recalling the intangibility of this principle in no way prevents us from recognizing the reasons why the fate of Ukrainians is of particular concern to Europeans, who have nothing to do with skin color or religion. Nearby, to the terrible memories of the years of Soviet oppression, for all Europeans is added the tragic memory of World War II and Nazism, hated by the Kremlin.
The huge outpouring of solidarity caused by the Ukrainian drama must not make us forget the serious violations of the rule of law by Poland and Hungary. But unanimity in adoption must serve as a lever for a new European migration policy. How can countries that have benefited from the G7’s solidarity to protect their Ukrainian neighbors continue to refuse a mechanism to share the reception of all asylum seekers?