It’s been one month since Russia invaded Ukraine, causing 3.5 million people to flee the country, an overwhelming majority heading west into the European Union (EU). As the smoke has cleared from the initial onset of the invasion, a picture has begun to emerge highlighting the either “unusually generous or overtly racist” stance taken by western media and the EU towards Ukrainian refugees in contrast to other non-Ukrainian refugees.
When those displaced by climate induced famine or conflict come from Africa, the Middle East or South Asia seeking refuge, can they expect such a warm reception from the EU and other wealthy nations as Ukrainian nationals have received? Sadly, refugee policy in Europe and other wealthy western nations have made it clear this is not the new status quo in handling refugees.
“These people are Europeans; 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.”
“Ukraine isn’t a place, with all due respect, like Iraq or Afghanistan, that has seen conflict raging for decades. This is a relatively civilized, relatively European – I have to choose those words carefully, too – city, one where you wouldn’t expect that, or hope that it’s going to happen. ”
These sentiments of ‘European’ refugees being ideal and valuable migrants are being echoed at the borders as reports are becoming widespread of non-Ukrainian refugees facing discrimination and racism while trying to cross into the EU.
Reports like this one highlighting “dehumanizing treatment of international students from Africa, South Asia, and the Middle East” have been coming to international attention one by one highlighting blatant discrimination by border agents. For days some of these refugees were left on the border while their Ukrainian counterparts could pass. The African Union has had so many reports of African nationals being denied passage that they as a whole have openly condemned the mistreatment of Africans attempting to flee Ukraine.
The EU hopes to resolve this issue through the Temporary Protection Directive which was passed recently in an effort by EU member states to make passage more accessible into the EU from the conflict in Ukraine.
Racist and xenophobic perceptions of refugees’ plague border policies across the EU, US, and Canada and the disparity with which Ukrainians and non-Ukrainians have been handled in this context is a dire warning of how climate refugees can expect to be handled as they are forced from their homes.
Poland only just months ago invested $400 million to construct a wall along its Belarussian border to prevent predominately Muslim asylum seekers from entering. An estimated 20,000 migrants were involved in that border crisis that resulted in the deaths of 21 and Poland being accused of violating international humanitarian laws in the process. Poland just recently announced an “open door” policy for millions of Ukrainian refugees but many of the special protections and provisions granted to Ukrainians are not applicable to other nationalities.
As climate change continues to fuel disasters, conflict, and famine in vulnerable countries around the globe, populations will become increasingly displaced. Populations forced from their homes and countries through no choice of their own will seek refuge, and wealthy nations are showing through the current polarization of Ukrainian vs non-Ukrainian refugees that in the future, they will not receive all refugees, if any, equally. Through refusal to bear the costs of to help countries adapt to climate change loss and damage suffered by vulnerable populations around the globe, wealthy nations are all but ensuring the future displacement of millions. At the same time as denying these climate frontline nations the financial support they are both owed and need to adapt to climate change, wealthy nations are signaling they will not take these populations in when they’re forced from their homes.
This is a clear shunning of responsibility on the part of wealthy high emitting nations and a perpetuation of climate injustice. The rude awakening society has witnessed in the form of the Ukrainian vs non-Ukrainian refugee bias should prompt conversation now about the future we want and how we as a society need to do better in meeting the needs of all refugees and not just those we can empathize with.