Source: The Paper
Surging Vision Zhao Zuoyan Wang Yasai Li Jingyun Intern Xu Xinyuan Shi Qinyi
Here is the Sibug River, with Poland ahead and Ukraine behind it, and an iron bridge connecting the borders of the two countries.
Thousands of vehicles from all over Ukraine are lined up closely, waiting to cross the bridge for more than a dozen kilometers.
It would have been only a few hours to drive from Kiev, the capital of Ukraine, but due to the conflict situation and traffic conditions, a mother with her own children told UNHCR that they had been in the car for three days and could not find cooked food and toilets along the way. Anxiety and insecurity keep them on their way, and they have "no choice."
The Russian-Ukrainian conflict has reached its eighth day. As the conflict continues to escalate, more than a million Ukrainian refugees have now been displaced and fled to neighbouring countries.
Where did Ukrainian refugees go mainly
According to the latest data from the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, as of 4:20 p.m. Beijing time on March 3, 2022, the number of Ukrainian refugees has reached 1.039 million, and it is increasing rapidly at an average rate of 140,000 per day.
The U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs released a report on Feb. 26 that the Ukrainian government estimates that in a worst-case scenario, the conflict could lead to 5 million Ukrainians fleeing the country, triggering a refugee crisis.
Ukraine is the second largest country in Europe by territory, after Russia. Ukraine is bordered by Russia to the east, the Black Sea to the south, Belarus to the north, and Poland, Slovakia, Hungary, Romania and Moldova to the west. According to the World Bank, Ukraine had a total population of 44.13 million in 2020.
According to UNHCR's Mid-2021 Trends Report, the number of displaced people worldwide now exceeds 84 million, of which the top three countries of origin are Syria (6.75 million), Venezuela (4.13 million) and Afghanistan (2.61 million). If the estimates mentioned above come true, Ukraine could become the second largest source of refugees.
U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees Filippo Grandi told the U.N. Security Council on Feb. 28 that it could be the largest wave of refugees in Europe in nearly a century. "I've been working in refugee crises for almost 40 years, and I've rarely seen such an incredibly rapidly growing exodus of people – the largest in Europe since the Balkan wars (1912-1913)."
On February 27, local time, some Ukrainian refugees arrived in Warsaw, the capital of Poland.
Ukrainian refugees are mainly women and children, and under current regulations, young Ukrainian men cannot leave the country. Daniel Menshikov, a senior official of Ukraine's customs department in Lviv, said on Social Media on February 24 that male Ukrainian citizens aged 18 to 60 would be barred from leaving Ukraine as they entered a wartime state.
Where have the refugees gone? Poland, located northwest of Ukraine, is the main destination, with more than half of Ukrainian refugees choosing to come to the bordering country.
Can they be accepted
Refugee flows have always been a global problem that is difficult to fundamentally solve, and one of its obstacles is the rising xenophobia of refugees in some countries. At present, the global refugees mainly come from war-torn Africa and the Middle East.
Some people believe that the large influx of refugees will bring heavy economic burdens and security risks to receiving countries. Countries such as Hungary and Poland in Eastern Europe have taken tough measures to prevent refugees from entering Europe.
According to media reports, in 2015, a large number of stranded refugees tried to enter Hungary from the Serbian-Hungarian border, but were stopped by Hungarian riot police with boiling water cannons and tear gas firing. Hungary also built a barbed wire fence along its southern border to stop war refugees from crossing the Balkan route to northern Europe.
However, on the issue of Ukrainian refugees this time, its border countries have shown almost unprecedented tolerance.
The surging reporter combed through the policies of the neighboring countries for the reception of Ukrainian refugees and found that the policy details were different.
Basically, all bordering countries can provide food, accommodation and medical care. Poland and Slovakia have a more positive attitude, making it clear that Ukrainians can have job opportunities and children can also have schooling opportunities, and the addresses of shelters are also clearly marked on the official website to facilitate refugees to find and go.
While Russia also offers jobs and schooling opportunities for Ukrainians, the policy is more directed toward pro-Russian Ukrainian citizens living in eastern Ukraine.
In terms of the length of stay, on February 27, the European Union announced that all member states would receive Ukrainian refugees within three years without having to apply for asylum. Romania, a member of the European Union, has a slightly different policy, with Ukrainian refugees staying in Romania for a maximum of 90 days at a time, and after more than 90 days, they need to leave the country for at least 180 days before they can apply for re-entry.
Why are there so many differences in eu attitudes toward Ukrainian refugees? In part, this is because Ukrainians are more empathetic and identifiable in other European countries than refugees in Africa and the Middle East.
On overseas social media, one netizen wrote: "Please don't let thousands of children wait in the cold in the refugee camps. We must support our European family. ”