An article in Middle East Eye criticized the EU's discriminatory treatment of refugees due to the war in Ukraine, noting that xenophobia had led the EU to discriminate between Ukrainians and citizens of the Middle East and Africa.

And writer Sahar Attay pointed out - in the article she wrote on the site - that the Ukrainians were granted what is known as the right of temporary protection, which was activated by the European Union for the first time last March, granting 3 years of residence and the right to work upon arrival.

While refugees from the Middle East and Africa were prevented even from initiating asylum procedures.

The writer added that while Ukrainian refugees are received with a "culture of welcome", refugees from the Middle East and Africa are treated as criminals.

She said the world had seen, in shock, more than 4 million people fleeing the war in Ukraine.

Certainly, the huge numbers of refugees and displaced persons, and the immeasurable trauma inflicted upon them, justify the use of the term "crisis".

But the "crisis" that unfolded several months ago, regarding refugees stranded due to a diplomatic row between the EU and Belarus, did not have to be a crisis at all, having been engineered by the latter and made possible by the racism and xenophobia of the EU.

And when their situation is different, with the generous reception of Ukrainians by EU countries and humanitarian workers alike, it has become impossible to deny the discrimination that blights European asylum and aid systems.

Starting last July, it is believed that thousands of refugees (mostly from Iraq, Afghanistan and Syria) were lured to Minsk and promised easy entry to EU countries.

Upon their arrival, the Belarusian border guards ordered them to cross the border into Poland.

Many had hoped to reach Germany.

In response, Poland established an "exclusion zone" around the border, excluding journalists and humanitarian workers.

Doctors Without Borders withdrew in protest at being denied assistance.

Meanwhile, border guards repelled refugees with water cannons and tear gas, and work began on a wall that would cost 10 times the budget of the Polish immigration department.

Pushbacks have become so common that it is easy to forget that they violate the essence of international humanitarian law, the Geneva Conventions, and run counter to the EU's own policy on the return of "illegal residents" which states that anyone on EU territory without documents must be subject to For the relevant procedures and can not face arbitrary deportation.


xenophobia

There was nothing illegal about the refugees' actions on the Polish-Belarus border.

They traveled to Minsk on valid visas.

In addition, refugees must cross the border to seek asylum, so doing so without documents is not against the law.

It became so only because of "the lame xenophobia of the European Union, which sees their presence as an attempt to destabilize".

This racism had a human toll. A pregnant Iraqi Kurdish woman and her unborn child died, and a Syrian family lost their one-year-old child, most likely due to exposure to sub-zero weather conditions.

A 19-year-old drowned in the Bug River, and the body of a 14-year-old was found in the woods, after he froze to death.

In all, about 20 or more people lost their lives claiming the integrity of the EU's eastern borders.

The convergence of time between the reception of Ukrainians, and their refugee counterparts who were returned to Belarus, highlighted the racism inherent in European asylum policy.

Sangeetha Lingar, a lawyer specializing in asylum law, describes it as a "European exception" and tells the site, "Turkey adopted the 1951 Refugee Convention with geographical restrictions, taking full responsibilities for refugees coming (from EU countries) but granting limited protection to refugees from other countries, As a result, the 3.6 million Syrian refugees in Turkey receive a less and secondary form of “temporary protection” and not the full legal rights enshrined in the 1951 Convention.

New initiatives have sought to further include this type of preferential treatment, such as the proposed UK Border and Citizenship Bill.


Parallel Aid Systems

In theory, humanitarian responses should be independent of military and political objectives.

But in reality, European governments that pursue differential asylum policies also fund humanitarian responses.

Funding projects that are exclusive to certain nationalities can lead to parallel aid systems that explicitly discriminate on the basis of race.

The refugee response in Jordan has witnessed many projects that focused on the Syrians, in an attempt to keep them away from Europe, a vicious cycle developed, and with the projects focused on the Syrians, no data was collected on the presence and needs of Iraqis, Sudanese, Somalis and Yemenis, thus becoming invisible within the humanitarian ecosystem. .

There are signs that history is repeating itself, as the UK Homes for Ukraine program excludes those who are not Ukrainians or the immediate family members of a Ukrainian citizen, leaving Yemenis and Syrians studying in Ukraine without protection in neighboring countries and unable to return home.

In addition to independence, the humanitarian sector is committed to the principle of neutrality, which is understood as helping the most vulnerable in the first place.

But it is worrying that while the UN is launching services for Ukrainians, contacts between former German Chancellor Angela Merkel and UN agencies have centered around those stranded in Belarus upon their return to their countries of origin, to which the German government advises against travel.

The humanitarian sector also has a duty to humanitarian workers, 4 of whom were arrested on 23 March for helping a family at the Polish-Belarus border.

If the humanitarian sector does not stand by them, the independence of humanitarian action will be jeopardized.

The writer concludes by saying that the European Union must implement its own humanitarian policies and principles and that we must act urgently before the establishment of asylum systems and parallel aid, and the loss of more lives.