Few places in Europe show the differences between different refugees more clearly than in the French city of Calais. Outside the center of the coastal city, hundreds of refugees and migrants from Africa and Asia live in the area known as the “jungle”.
Without proper hygiene conditions, or opportunities to cook.
– THE JUNGLE: The temporary refugee camps outside Calais are called the “jungle”. The conditions are heartbreaking. Photo: Santiago Vergara / TV 2
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The contrast is great to how 19-year-old Nicole Hritsak from Ukraine is received. She is one of the more than 4 million Ukrainians who have fled their homeland.
A warm welcome awaits her with a guarantee of housing, work or education and health services.
– There are lots of people who are kind to me here. I’m so glad I’m here, says Nicole.
Calais has been a gathering place for migrants and refugees for years. Volunteers come with food, water and try to maintain a minimum of dignity for those who have fled Asia and Africa to the forest areas outside Calais. They receive no help from the government. They live in tents and warm themselves by the fire.
Ukrainians are greeted by a freshly made bed, and freshly prepared food at the city’s youth hostels and hotels nearby.
– IN TENT: Children get juice and toys from volunteers who work in what is called the “jungle” outside Calais in France. Photo: Santiago Vergara / TV 2
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– The conditions are heartbreaking, says Francois Guennec, who for many years has tried to give those who have fled to Calais a dignified life.
There are great fears that there will be more refugees, asylum seekers and migrants from Asia and Africa, if they receive help from the public sector. The camps are systematically cleared and destroyed, to prevent people from settling here.
– We do not sort refugees by where they come from. We help everyone, says Francois.
– WAREHOUSE: In a large warehouse outside Calais, volunteers sort clothes, toys and hygiene items for refugees who do not receive any help from the public sector. Photo: Santiago Vergara / TV 2
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He is president of the organization L´Auberge des Migrants. We meet him in a warehouse outside the center of Calais. Here, a handful of voluntary organizations work to organize help for those who have come from Asia and Africa. Firewood is packed in bags. Toys for children, hygiene products for women and clothes are sorted and packed.
– Discrimination
Many Ukrainian refugees come to cities such as Calais, Paris and Brussels. Not least those who want to go to the UK. There is a visa requirement for Ukrainians to the UK. The British have set up a separate visa service for Ukrainians near Calais.
In the registration queue for refugees right next to Heysel Stadium in Brussels, we meet Nicole Hritsak (19). She tells of a long journey on crowded trains and buses from Ukraine to the heart of Europe. Nicole thinks it helps a lot that both she and others are lifted up on a wave of warmth and helpfulness.
– People welcome you and it’s really cool, says Nicole.
She says that she is an artist at home in Ukraine and shows a music video on her mobile. In many places along the queue, there are volunteers who hand out Belgian SIM cards to the refugees.
In Calais, Francois is delighted with how the Ukrainians have been received. The city immediately opened a youth hostel where the Ukrainian refugees were housed. His organization and others have collected and distributed clothing to newcomers.
– SHOCKED: Francois Guennec is happy with the help given to Ukrainians. But shocked at the discrimination against refugees. Photo: Santiago Vergara / TV 2
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– What shocks us a lot is the difference in treatment between Ukrainians, who we obviously have to help, and the others. They are also mainly, not all, but most, refugees from war and dictatorship, he says.
He calls it discrimination, and says they never sort refugees, asylum seekers or migrants by where they come from. Several French organizations working with refugees will try this in court.
All Ukrainian refugees have been granted temporary residence in the EU, following the introduction of the Mass Refugee Directive immediately after the start of the war. This directive was adopted after the war in the Balkans in the 1990s. It has never been used before in Europe. It guarantees Ukrainian refugees the right to financial assistance, work, housing, education and health services, among other things.
Most Ukrainians we talk to just want to go home again, including Nicole.
– I dream of being an artist in Ukraine. It’s actually my dream. Not in Belgium, not in Poland, not in America or New York. I can not now, but I have hope.
Organizations respond to discrimination against refugees
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