Written by Lionel Lemonier and Hanan Ben Rhouma | Monday, March 14, 2022 at 08:00
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The tsunami of solidarity enjoyed by Ukrainian refugees is welcome. The efforts of French and European governments to coordinate and organize the reception of millions of people thrown on the roads of exile are justified. Many actors of international solidarity cannot, however, refrain from comparing the current solidarity with the indifference, even the cruelty, suffered by refugees from the Middle East and Central Asia in recent years in several Member States of the EU. A blatant “double standard” which inevitably creates unease but which could also generate collective awareness.
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On March 1, the Ministry of the Interior gave clarification concerning reception arrangements, indicating in particular that Ukrainians with a biometric passport can stay for up to three months after entering the Schengen area. As for those who do not have one or who do not have a travel document, they “must have a visa to stay in France, which will be issued to them free of charge” through one of the consular posts in the border states of Ukraine.
After Poland, where 150,000 people arrive every day from Ukraine, Gérald Darmanin went to Romania on Friday March 11 to “to see how we can work to relieve (these countries) of people fleeing Ukraine and settling in these humanitarian hubs so far”.
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French and European aid needed for Ukrainian refugees
An interministerial crisis unit (CIC) was thus set up at the beginning of the week to respond to the multiple problems posed by the reception of Ukrainian refugees, whose number amounted to 7,500 on French soil as of March 10, 2022, 13 500 as of Monday, March 14.* According to the prefect Joseph Zimet, coordinator of the CIC, quoted by the Huffington PostFrance is considering taking in some 100,000 Ukrainian refugees.
In parallel, the government launched, on Tuesday March 8, an online platform “I am committed to Ukraine” allowing “Citizens to mobilize easily in favor of the reception of refugees and displaced persons in France” through various services (housing, language courses, food assistance, translation, interpreting, administrative assistance, etc.) and “associations to recruit volunteers to help them carry out their missions”. “Your mobilization is essential today to succeed in this challenge which commits us collectively”argues Marlène Schiappa, Minister Delegate for Citizenship.
Government initiatives are multiplying. At the European level too, the EU countries have decided to set in motion an unprecedented mechanism: temporary protection granted to Ukrainian refugees fleeing the war. This mechanism is made possible thanks to the existence of a 2001 directive which had never been used before. It will allow Ukrainians to stay in the EU for a renewable year, to work there, to access social aid as well as housing, the school system and medical care.
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Recent memories that cause discomfort
There is necessarily reason to rejoice to see that France and Europe are getting organized to come to the aid of Ukrainian refugees. It is indeed unthinkable for European countries not to participate in efforts to come to the aid of a population attacked by the regime of Vladimir Putin. Everyone is invited to participate in the tremendous outpouring of solidarity and generosity, which is also evident among the Muslim communities.
Solidarity actors involved in welcoming refugees and migrants cannot, however, avoid feeling uneasy. It is enough to see the sorting operated at the borders with Poland, Romania or Hungary between white Ukrainians to whom the doors are wide open and African nationals (students for the most part) who, confronted with racism, have been turned back or had to fight for refuge.
It is also enough to remember the thousands of Syrian, Iraqi, Afghan or Yemeni refugees who, just a few months ago, were trapped between Poland and Belarus, as some of them recounted on RFI. The latter country used their desire to seek refuge in Europe as a means of retaliation against the European Union, which imposed economic sanctions on it. Far from being welcomed and rescued, these people suffered violence of all kinds, denounced Amnesty International. Brutality, mistreatment, extortion and abandonment in the buffer zone between the two borders, in the freezing cold of winter.
On the Polish side, the right to asylum has been flouted and illegal deportations have multiplied. There were victims, children in particular who died of cold or starvation. But despite these flagrant human rights violations, the European Commission has remained remarkably passive. The fate of these migrants who are not “members of the same European family as us” – to paraphrase the dedicated site Refugees Ukraine – hardly aroused solidarity in Europe.
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In Calaisie, a glaring difference in treatment
What about what is happening in the Calais region? NGOs have for years denounced police violence against migrants waiting for the opportunity to cross to Great Britain. Human Rights Watch published in October 2021 a report damning reporting “degrading treatment” to which migrants are subjected. Between “the repeated mass eviction operations, the almost daily police harassment and the restrictions on the delivery of humanitarian aid and on access to this aid”, the authorities are implementing “abusive practices mainly with the aim of forcing people to move elsewhere, without resolving their migration status or homelessness and without deterring new arrivals”.
Political leaders have never shown the slightest compassion towards non-European refugees, like the mayor of Calais who had refuse in November 2021 the establishment of temporary accommodation for migrants on the proposal of the mediator sent by the government to put an end to the hunger strike initiated by association activists against the dismantling of the camps. For the Ukrainians, on the other hand, Natacha Bouchart struggles by opening, for example, a youth hostel, provoking l’indignation associations helping migrants in Calaisie. A complaint of discrimination is thus being studied by a collective noting with regret the difference in treatment in several communes of Nord-Pas-de-Calais.
As for the activation of the temporary protection directive for Ukrainians only by the Council of the EU, the decision reveals “the limits of European solidarity” and act like “A reminder: Europe has long had the tools to protect people fleeing war and to help new arrivals, and the usual ‘fortress Europe’ approach is an eminently political choice”underlines Eve Geddie, director of the office of the NGO for the EU. “The fact that this decision is taken for the first time, but mainly for displaced Ukrainian citizens, shows that the EU approach is characterized by the policy of ‘double standards’”she says.
“We can’t take all the misery in the world”, we often hear. Certainly, but the actions undertaken so far show that everything (or almost) is a matter of political will to allow dignified treatment of refugees as a whole. Unease generated by the blatantness of the situation – recently raised by the far-right mayor of Béziers. Robert Menard! – can also be born of an awareness of public opinion at the source of welcome debates to overhaul the reception policy in France and in Europe.
*Figures have been updated.
Read also:
War in Ukraine: Robert Ménard pleads “guilty” for his past treatment of Muslim refugees
War in Ukraine: a Mariupol mosque bombed by Russia?
In France and in Europe, solidarity and Muslim prayers at work for Ukraine
Ukraine – Russia: in the face of Putin’s organized racketeering, what outcome to the war?
War in Ukraine: non-alignment or the path to peace
Ukraine-Russia: the call of the Orthodox bishops of France for peace between “brother peoples”
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