Just six weeks ago, Poland began building a wall along its border with neighboring Belarus. It was intended to repel refugees, asylum seekers and migrants from Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan trying to reach Europe via Minsk.
The fate of thousands of people was in the air for many days, stuck along the border in low temperatures, unable to advance to Poland or return to Belarus.
And now? Just a week ago, Poland, like all other EU member states, opened its borders to accept war refugees from Ukraine. European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen promised that everyone would be welcome.
“A very different answer”
“What a difference!” Said Catherine Woollard, director of the European Council for Refugees and Exiles (ECRE) in Brussels. She, along with a coalition of dozens of humanitarian organizations, has been involved in immigration policy for years.
More than 1 million people have already fled Ukraine in just over a week since the February 24 Russian invasion. The EU expects up to 4 million people to join the bloc, which would be the largest refugee group in Europe since World War II.
“Europe is able to cope now and it was able to cope in 2015, but of course we are seeing a very different response,” Woolard said.
Starting in 2015, about 1 million Syrians fleeing the civil war arrived in Central Europe via Greece and the Balkan countries. The controversial debate over the distribution of these refugees has plunged the EU into an entrenched political battle, a battle that remains unresolved to this day.
Woollard is pleased that the EU has so far reacted very differently to people leaving Ukraine. “We appreciate that. We hope this will continue,” he said. “Clearly, a collective response to such numbers makes the situation manageable.”
Rare consensus between Member States
EU Home Affairs Commissioner Ylva Johansson was also pleasantly surprised by the speed with which EU Home Affairs ministers were able to reach a consensus on how to help people who arrived from Ukraine after years of disagreement over EU immigration policy.
“I’m proud to be European, I’m proud of the solidarity shown by individuals, local and regional authorities, border guards, NGOs, governments,” he said earlier this week, after the 27 EU interior ministers agreed to accept quickly all refugees arriving from Ukraine.
The ministers promised to guarantee refugees at least 12 months of residence in any EU nation and to provide them with housing and health care, a school for their children and the right to work. They will get rid of the tedious asylum procedures that are generally imposed on immigrants who have arrived by boat in Italy, Greece or Spain in recent years.
Double standards
Unwilling to criticize the current willingness to help, Woolard said there were clearly double standards and measures on immigration policy in the EU. This was especially evident in countries such as Poland and Hungary – which have also sealed the southern borders. with a wall from the immigration crisis in 2015.
“Unfortunately, it’s well-established that immigration and asylum policies are shaped by factors such as race, religion and country of origin. There are prejudices in the system. These are issues that need to be addressed in the long run,” he told DW. “We need to see this kind of response wherever people in need reach Europe.”
The EU is using extra cash from an emergency fund to help Ukraine’s neighbors, especially in countries such as Romania and Moldova, which are in dire need of support. Laws stipulating that the country of initial entry into the EU is responsible for processing a refugee are also repealed.
Ukrainians are now free to travel to other EU countries, even if they do not have the legally required biometric passports. However, such rules will not apply to holders of third-country passports with a residence visa for Ukraine – such as students from Africa.
“They are helping to leave Ukraine. We are working closely with the Ukrainian side. All of them are welcome in Europe. [provided] with food, clothes and accommodation, “said Johansson, describing the block approach to these students. “Then we approach the third countries they come from … and they will send planes to pick them up and bring them home. “
2022 is not 2015
Johansson said this new solidarity and “paradigm shift” in refugee policy could potentially affect the EU’s controversial “toxic” immigration policies on a larger scale. But why can things be done in 2022 that could not be done in 2015?
German Social Democrat Interior Minister Nancy Pfizer does not have the answer, but she has a premonition. “The only explanation I have is that the war is very close. It is in the heart of Europe. The level of concern is different when you see what is happening there,” he said.
Proposals for legislative reform of EU immigration and asylum laws – which were on the table long before the war in Ukraine – will now be hastily submitted.
“Every minister at the table agrees that we need to move much faster than we have so far. It is often the case that a crisis can resolve a blockade. We need to reach a consensus. We need to make progress,” he said. Gerald Darmanin this week. Darmanin currently holds the rotating presidency of the EU’s interior ministers during France’s six-month term as president of the bloc.
“As it’s supposed to be”
The rapid acceptance of Ukrainian refugees fleeing the Russian invasion is also in the EU’s own interest, Woolard said. “It must continue. The risk of panic and paralysis in the EU will only help the service [Russian President] Vladimir Putin. “We must make every sacrifice to avoid a political crisis that we saw in 2015 and 2016,” he said.
At the time, the bloc was divided between those EU countries that completely rejected migrants and those that were willing to accept them, with controversial discussions on so-called “refugee ceilings” or “ceilings”. Over time, the general policy of deterrence prevailed to a large extent and the borders were sealed. Asylum procedures, which had to be dealt with directly at the bloc’s external borders, have not yet been fully implemented.
However, handling the influx of refugees from the EU so far in 2022 has been “adequate and collective, as it should be,” Wallard said.
This article has been translated from German by Jon Shelton
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