Ukraine Crisis Exposes Double Standard Towards Refugees from the Middle East
People fleeing wars in Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan didn’t enjoy the same welcome as refugees escaping from Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
At this point, the media has made clear the horrible violence inflicted upon the Ukrainian people by Russian President Vladimir Putin. However, refugees fleeing war-torn countries in the Middle East have not received the same treatment from European countries as Ukrainians do.
Refugees fleeing from war zones in Ukraine have been treated vastly differently from those fleeing wars in Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan.
Many foreign students have detailed their experiences trying to leave Ukraine, only to be faced with racist treatment. Including, Rachel Onyegbule, a medical student from Nigeria, who told CNN that she was forced off a bus carrying only Ukrainians and was stranded in the border town of Shehyni.
European countries are now doing everything they can to help the Ukrainian refugees, including free rail, bus, ferry and air travel, and they are exempt from needing a visa to travel between countries in the European Union.
For example, Greece, which now has an open-door policy for refugees coming from Ukraine, is still having trouble giving refugees coming from Afghanistan and other Middle Eastern countries asylum.
While Greeks are helping create care packages that are being sent to Ukraine, in Athens more than 400 police officers are enforcing Operation “Skupa,” meaning broom, carrying out checks on asylum-seekers and detaining those who can’t prove their identity.
This hypocrisy has been seen in other European countries as well, with both the Polish interior minister and Austrian chancellor saying they would have no problem taking Ukrainian refugees. While Ukraine is obstructing African students from reaching Poland, Austria struggled with letting Afghan refugees resettle in their country.
These countries claim that because they’re neighbors with Ukraine it’s different Accepting refugees. Although, I believe that these differences reek of Islamophobia, and are based in politics, instead of seeking to help others regardless of their race, ethnicity, or religion.
Anti-immigrant political parties have risen throughout Europe, including Germany where in 2017 the far-right Alternative for Germany entered the federal parliament for the first time and pushed for strict anti-immigration policies.
Europe should not stand in the way of the 14th article in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which states that, “everyone has the right to seek and to enjoy in other countries asylum from persecution.”
Of course, these countries should do everything in their power to help those fleeing from Ukraine, but they should extend the same attitude and services to those fleeing from war zones in the Middle East.
European countries have notoriously been less than welcoming to refugees fleeing war zones, especially in countries like Syria, and deals between the European Union and Turkey in 2016.
The differences between these conflicts also comes across in media coverage, with some journalists saying that these refugees are people like us.
One of many examples of how journalists have treated these refugees differently occurred when Charlie D’Agata, a CBS News foreign correspondent, said live on air that 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.”
Another example of the media treating the refugee groups differently occurred when a journalist for ITV reporting from Poland said: “Now the unthinkable has happened to them. And this is not a developing, third world nation. This is Europe!”
These statements were made in poor taste, and war zones can appear anywhere, not just in the Middle East.
The backlash has been immediate; however, other journalists have made the same mistake and have been called out by the Arab and Middle Eastern Journalists Association. The association put out a statement condemning the “… racist implications that any population or country is ‘uncivilized’ or bears economic factors that make it worthy of conflict.”
The differences in coverage serve to dehumanize Middle Eastern refugees, and make it seem like conflict is just a normal occurrence in that part of the world, but all refugees should be treated fairly and be given an equal opportunity to live in a place that is safe.
