The EU has decided to apply for the first time a 2001 directive granting “temporary protection” to people fleeing the war in Ukraine. A policy that contrasts with the reluctance expressed during the wars of Syria and Afghanistan.
Le Monde
This is a “paradigm shift” said, Thursday, March 3, the Internal Affairs Commissioner, YLVA Johansson: the twenty-seven decided to apply for the first time a 2001 directive, it grants “protection” protection temporary “refugees fleeing war in Ukraine. They will be able to stay for at least one year in the European Union (EU), work, access social and housing aid, education and medical care.
The measure will benefit from the Ukrainians, those who already had a refugee status and foreigners who have long been living in Ukraine. Those who did not enjoy a residence permit in this country will be helped, before being repatriated in their country of origin, promises M me Johansson. A long negotiation has resulted in a compromise: each country may either apply the European decision or specific national legislation. Austria, Poland and Hungary did not want to subscribe to an applicable text in the future to other refugees.
An immense momentum of generosity is manifested, in any case, everywhere and strongly contrasts with the reluctance, in Central and Eastern Europe, especially, at the time of the wars of Syria and Afghanistan.
In addition, testimonies on brutalities that have been victims of third-country nationals, both in Ukraine and Poland, multiply and have attracted a worried response from Antonio Vitorino, Director of the International Organization for Migration (IOM), UN agency. The former European Commissioner said, Thursday, “alarmed” by “audited reports on discrimination, violence and xenophobia” which people are victims attempting to flee the conflict.
In Brussels, “We are unaware of any” emphasizes a source to the commission. Testimonies and images have confirmed that people of African, Asian or Caribbean origin have been strength in Ukrainian stations or brutalized by the police. Others have been separated from Ukrainian citizens by Polish soldiers and border guards. Polish radical nationalist activists have brutalized several Indian students, Tuesday, March 1, in the streets of Przemysl, in the south-east of the country.
“Segregation”
“The government is doing much more than we were hoping to, says the President of the Polish migratory forum (MFM), Agnieszka Kosowicz. The help of civil society has taken absolutely immense proportions but what worries us is segregation. which are victims of other continents, treated differently by the authorities as by the population. “
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