A18 EZ RE THE WASHINGTON POST.TUESDAY, MARCH 1 , 2022
russia invades ukrainebers of British nationals. Home
Secretary Priti Patel estimated that
100,000 Ukrainians would be able
to “seek sanctuary,” provided they
passed security checks.
Over the weekend, a Home Of-
fice minister tweeted — and then
deleted — that there were “a num-
ber of routes” for Ukrainian refu-
gees without family connections
to come to Britain, including work
visas that would allow them to
pick seasonal fruit and vegetables.
The suggestion was met with
widespread condemnation as in-
appropriate for the moment. “Peo-
ple are fleeing war in Europe, the
like we haven’t seen in genera-
tions, in search of swift sanctuary,”
wrote opposition Labour Party
lawmaker Yvette Cooper.
Polls suggest Britain’s Conserva-
tive government is out of step with
public opinion, with the majority
saying they’d support resettlement
efforts for refugees. That was also
the sense in south London on Sun-
day night, where Londoners
turned up to a Polish community
center to donate thousands of bags
filled with clothes, medicine, dia-
pers, sleeping bags — you name it
— for fleeing Ukrainians.
“They are very vulnerable citi-
zens. It would be ideal to see the
U.K. open its doors,” said Dia Day,
19, a student who was lifting boxes
of bedding into a van, destined for
Ukrainian refugees in Poland.
On the continent, it remains un-
clear how long the warm welcome
will last. In 2015, Germany’s then-
chancellor, Angela Merkel, told her
country “we can do it” and swung
wide the doors of Europe’s largest
economy to Syrians. Clusters of
Germans turned out to welcome
the new Muslim migrants with
flowers and hugs at train stations.
But for many Germans, the wel-
come wore thin as refugee num-
bers continued to surge, migrant
ranks were infiltrated by small
numbers of trained terrorists, and
the bills came due for financial
aid. Merkel would later backtrack
on her decision, one that would
haunt her political career.Emily Rauhala in Brussels, Chico
Harlan in Rome, Elinda Labropoulou
in Athens, Kate Brady in Berlin and
Claire Parker in Washington
contributed to this report.estinians, Ethiopians, Afghans,
Syrians, Iranians, Africans,”
tweeted Ajamu Baraka, an Ameri-
can human rights activist. “Is it
only the images of white suffering
that moves them?”
Tarik Abou-Chadi, an associate
professor in European politics at
Oxford University, tried to explain
it like this in an interview with The
Post: “There’s the idea of a shared
fate — ‘we could be next’ — and
having a shared identity that
stands against Russian imperial-
ism. So this gives some people a
different sense of community with
others who are now fleeing. This
might increase compassion for
these Ukrainian refugees, com-
pared to those from Syria.”
In interviews Thursday, several
refugees and asylum seekers in
Greece — a main arrival point for
those fleeing the Middle East and
African conflicts — said matter-of-
factly that they weren’t surprised
that Europe was approaching the
current crisis differently.
A Nigerian in Athens, who
spoke on the condition of ano-
nymity for fears to his safety, de-
scribed following the news and
empathizing with Ukrainians flee-
ing war.
“But, you know, a lot of people
have been dying in Yemen,” he
said. “And a lot of people have been
dying in Ethiopia in horrible vio-
lence. Very little of that makes the
news. Now it is Europe, and Euro-
peans who are fleeing ... I hear
people say, ‘All lives matter’ but no,
they don’t all matter the same.
Black lives matter less.”
Even as Europe welcomes
Ukrainians, it is funding the Lib-
yan coast guard to thwart mi-
grants from crossing the Mediter-
ranean to Italy. Greek security
forces have been accused of push-
ing migrants back toward Turkish
waters, in violation of internation-
al law. Those who do have the
fortune of reaching Greek soil of-
ten wind up in a highly surveilled
camp where they can live for more
than a year.
Britain — which left the Euro-
pean Union in part because of a
desire to “take back control” of its
borders — signaled on Monday
that it was willing to open the door
to Ukrainians but only a crack. The
offer is limited to the family mem-man Interior Minister Nancy
Faeser said Sunday.
“I don’t know how many will
come,” E.U. Home Affairs Commis-
sioner Ylva Johansson said when
asked about the scale of refugees
she expects. “I think we will have
to prepare for millions.”
Beirens said E.U. nations had an
additional interest in supporting
the measure, because it would free
up asylum systems that otherwise
would be choked with new Ukraini-
an applications. Europe, however,
did not take similar steps in 2015
and 2016. Asylum seekers from the
Middle East and Africa have in
many cases had to wait years in
legal limbo, making it difficult to
find jobs in the formal economy,
while their claims were assessed.
So while refugee advocates
have cheered the E.U.'s growing
support for Ukrainian refugees,
some have also bristled at how
ethnicity, culture and religion ap-
pear to be driving the humanitari-
an response.
“For anyone who understands
the liberal mind, please explain to
me why the lives of Ukrainians are
more precious than Haitians, Pal-E.U. has refused to assume the risk
of helping defend Ukrainian terri-
tory from the long-present Rus-
sian threat or allow the free move-
ment of 44 million people through
the bloc.
But the brutality of the Russian
invasion and the sheer number of
displaced and fleeing Ukrainians,
some argued, required a strong col-
lective response — particularly as
the struggle in Ukraine is rooted in
the desire of its people to link with
E.U. principles of democracy and
human rights, and shift away from
Moscow’s authoritarian orbit.
And so the E.U., formed as a
trade alliance, has taken the un-
precedented step of financing the
purchase and delivery of weapons
to Ukraine. And E.U. leaders are
expected to announce Thursday
that they will allow Ukrainians to
receive temporary protection for
up to three years, potentially al-
lowing them to work legally and
access social services.
An emergency meeting of E.U.
interior ministers achieved “soli-
darity among all E.U. states to
jointly take in war refugees quick-
ly and unbureaucratically,” Ger-Lukashenko, under heavy sanc-
tions, was trying to manufacture a
crisis and destabilize the bloc by
using migrants as pawns. Now, the
E.U. has a shocking war happen-
ing right next door.
“Eastern European countries
see a chance to show unity with a
neighbor and take a stand against
Russian hostility,” said Hanne Bei-
rens, the director of Migration Pol-
icy Institute Europe. Compared
with 2015 and 2016, she said, E u-
rope “is in a very different political
situation, a very different political
landscape.”
But in interviews with The
Washington Post, several Euro-
pean officials were blunt that iden-
tity politics, too, are playing a role.
“Honestly, the sentiment is dif-
ferent since they are White and
Christian,” said one European offi-
cial, who spoke on the condition of
anonymity to speak candidly.
The E.U. is opening its doors
even as it remains reticent about
granting Ukraine membership
into its 27-nation club. Ukrainian
President Volodymyr Zelensky
made a further appeal on Monday
for “urgent accession.” So far, thestop or turn back asylum seekers.
The solidarity of the current
moment stands in stark contrast,
particularly amid estimates that
numbers could soar into the mil-
lions and potentially become the
largest refugee wave on the conti-
nent of the post-World War II era.
Some leaders have been un-
abashed about the dramatic shift
in attitudes.
“These are not the refugees we
are used to ... these people are
Europeans,” Bulgarian Prime
Minister Kiril Petkov told journal-
ists about the Ukrainians, as re-
ported by the Associated Press.
“These people are intelligent, they
are educated people. ... This is not
the refugee wave we have been
used to, people we were not sure
about their identity, people with
unclear pasts, who could have
been even terrorists.”
“In other words,” he added,
“there is not a single European
country now which is afraid of the
current wave of refugees.”
Governments in the eastern
and central parts of the continent
that were once staunchly opposed
to refugees have suddenly become
some of the biggest supporters of
an open-door policy — even as
their welcoming stance appeared
to be limited to Ukrainians.
In the mid-2010s, Hungarian
Prime Minister Viktor Orban built
barbed-wire fences and established
“border hunters” with 4x4s, night-
vision goggles and migrant-sniffing
dogs to halt arrivals of asylum seek-
ers from an arc of instability from
Africa to Afghanistan. On Sunday,
he told journalists that “everyone
fleeing Ukraine will find a friend in
the Hungarian state.”
When Belarus began funneling
Middle Eastern and Afghan asy-
lum seekers toward Poland last
year, Warsaw dispatched troops
and pushed back migrants —
some of whom froze to death in
the woods. In recent days, howev-
er, Polish state railways have an-
nounced free travel for Ukraini-
ans, and tons of aid have been
donated by the public.
Some of that disparity may be
explained by the different push-
factors at play. E.U. leaders said
Belarusian President Alexander
REFUGEES FROM A
Warm welcome for refugees highlights disparity against other asylum seekers
KASIA STREK FOR THE WASHINGTON POST
People arrive in Przemysl, Poland, from Ukraine on Sunday by b uses organized by Polish firefighters.
European countries that were once o pposed to asylum seekers a re now welcoming Ukrainian refugees.CapehartWednesday, March 2 at 4:00 p.m.The congresswoman joins Washington Postopinions writer Jonathan Capehart for aconversation about the latest news outof Ukraine, Biden’s State of the Unionaddress and her work on the Jan. 6House select committee.To register to watch, visit
wapo.st/murphymarch202 2or scan code below using
a smartphone camera:Rep. Stephanie Murphy (D-Fla.)Listen wherever podcasts are available.@POSTLIVE #POSTLIVE