As the conflict between Russia and Ukraine continues to escalate, more than a million Ukrainian refugees have been displaced to neighbouring countries. According to official UNHCR figures, from February 24 to March 2, the Russo-Ukrainian War produced a total of 1,045,459 refugees, of which 547,982 flocked to Poland, followed by Hungary and Saldoba, the second and third largest destinations for refugees. 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.
With regard to the refugee problem, the vast majority of countries in the world are more exclusive. Countries such as Poland and Hungary have taken tough measures to prevent the influx of refugees into their countries. 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. However, Poland, Hungary and other countries did not choose to do so in this campaign, and the outside world believed that this was due to the emotional factors of the same Europe.
Refugees arise with war or international armed conflict, and the law on refugee issues constitutes an important part of international law such as international war law and international human rights law. International refugee law and the concept of refugees began in the 1920s after World War I. Subsequently, the persecution of the people of the world by the German-Italian-Japanese fascist regime led to the emergence of a new refugee problem, and the international community, led by the League of Nations, formulated a new document to expand the scope of refugee protection, the landmark legal document being the 1933 Refugee Convention. However, a number of international conventions on refugee protection signed at this stage were designed to protect refugees in specific countries.
In 1951, the United Nations adopted the Convention relating to the Status of Refugees, the first universal convention for the protection of refugees. The Convention imposes obligations on sovereign States to provide effective protection for refugees and asylum-seekers, including: (1) States Parties shall apply the provisions of the Convention to refugees without distinction as to race, religion or nationality;
However, a careful study of the Convention relating to the Status of Refugees shows that the Convention only addresses the question of the treatment of refugees upon entry into the territory of a State party, but does not address the question of whether a sovereign State is obliged to allow refugees to enter its territory and whether allowing refugees to enter its territory is an internationally compulsory obligation or a more noble moral act of the State. The United Nations legal system responds to this issue.
On 10 December 1948, the United Nations General Assembly adopted the Universal Declaration of Human Rights by resolution 217A (III). Although the Declaration is not strictly speaking an international treaty and is not of course legally binding, the Declaration was voted on by only 8 members who abstained from voting, with no members opposing it, gaining the conviction of the vast majority of the world's Countries and repeatedly practicing it in subsequent international practice, so that the Declaration can be considered a universally binding international custom, legally binding on each State. Article 14, paragraph 1, of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights provides that everyone has the right to seek and enjoy asylum in other countries to avoid persecution. This means that, in the event of persecution and imminent threat of destruction, refugees have the right to seek asylum from other States to avoid persecution, corresponding to the obligation of other States to provide asylum. Allowing refugees to enter their borders was therefore an obligation that every State should fulfil.
The Russo-Ukrainian War, which deprived millions of Ukrainian people of their homes, was the "last straw" for them to rekindle hope in their lives. It is hoped that the relevant countries will strictly abide by the provisions of international legal documents such as the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the Convention on the Status of Refugees, so that they can still feel the warmth of the world in the pain of displacement.