Hundreds of thousands of Ukrainians fled their homes following the Russian invasion. At the beginning of the conflict, the United Nations agencies predicted that “the invasion could drive 5 million Ukrainians to flee abroad.”
The current refugee crisis is one of the worst human tragedies in Europe’s history. Thankfully, the neighboring countries came up with exemplary resolute to tackle the sudden refugee influx.
Slovakia allowed Ukrainians to enter without “valid travel documents,” while the Romanians cordially welcomed Ukrainians “despite decades of tension.” Relatedly, Poland and Hungary changed their “anti-refugee” stance to embrace thousands of Ukrainians.
Rail companies in Europe are offering free travel to fleeing Ukrainians. Well, every little gesture is appreciated. This is how the war in Ukraine has significantly changed the EU, as many European nations suspend flights and golden visas for Russians and Belarusians.
Even though European nations are warmly embracing Ukrainians, fleeing home is still unthinkable. No one leaves their homeland happily; there is always a reason behind every escape. Imagine, “what it’s like to escape Kyiv?” Europe is at the crossroads of a catastrophic human tragedy. How will Europe cope with it?
I grew up witnessing an influx of Afghan refugees in northern Pakistan who fled their homes to abscond from the brutal Russian assault back in 1979. During my early student years, we used to visit Afghan refugee camps in Haripur to buy aid items, especially the low-priced American jackets.
Later, I went to northern England to study for my master's and Ph.D. During those years, I had the opportunity to meet and study with Iraqi, Syrian and Afghan refugees alongside economic migrants from various countries including Romania, Lithuania, Poland and Bosnia-Herzegovina.
There I learned there is no place like home and that one can hardly ever be treated as deserved, desired and wished. Although I can admit that majority of Britons are polite, there are many more in politics, media and other walks of life who literally hold cold and sometimes hostile views of migrants be they Muslims or white Europeans like themselves.
If anyone has any doubt of my words, they should grab a copy of the British tabloids to see British politicians, some key officials, and known members of the public openly hold and express racist views of immigrants, refugees and migrants.
Initially, the British Home Office Secretary Priti Patel was determined to use U.K. Border Force to “push back” migrants across the channel that did not work mainly because France warned that the plan could endanger lives and later the Ministry of Defense also dropped the idea of deploying the force.
A number of studies on refugees, asylum-seekers, and migrants have made it clear that certain sections of the press, some politicians, members of the public bodies, and pressure groups mostly portray them in a negative light.
The long lines of desperate Ukrainians in cars and lines of people attempting to cross borders to protect their families from being killed in the Russian invasion took me back to the Kabul airport incident that witnessed Afghans clinging to U.S. aircraft to secure a better life for themselves.
I recall scores of distasteful incidents that happened to Iraqi, Syrian, Afghan, Somalian, Libyan, Palestinian and Rohingya Muslims who escaped wars, persecution, torture and illegal imprisonments. Evidently, the recent history of refugees fleeing from wars in the Middle East, or facing brutal regimes, and getting away from the economic crisis have faced tough times in Europe.
The story of refugees, migrants and asylum-seekers featured in European newspapers showing people holding placards with captions “refugees welcome” is only a one-sided view of a section of “civil society solidarity” campaigns, while the broader picture shows that many European countries have in fact been pursuing unsympathetic refugee policies.
The rhetoric now and then is clearly illustrious. As CBS News correspondent Charlie D'Agata reporting from Kyiv said, “But this isn’t a place with all due respect, like Iraq or Afghanistan that has seen conflict raging for decades. This is relatively civilized, relatively European, I have chosen those words carefully, and a city where you wouldn’t expect that or hope it’s going to happen.”
That’s the proof of being racist, bigot and anti-Muslim, an anonymous TikToker wrote, “So it’s ok for 'civilized' Europeans to bomb countries around the world?”
For a long time, Europe has waged wars, supported brutal regimes, and created conflicts in the Middle East, Africa and Asia. There are piles of evidence of how fleeing people from war-torn countries in the Middle East, Africa, and Asia have experienced a cold-hearted Europe.
Twitter trends such as #hypocrisy are a reminder of how Europe dealt with non-Muslim and non-European refugees. Now, at the heights of the Russian invasion, many fleeing black students complain “of being blocked and of racist treatment” while “boarding trains, and abused by police.”
Professor Julian Petley told me, “If you look at how ordinary Polish and Moldovan peoples are welcoming the refugees, it's both moving and encouraging. But we’ll have to see how governments behave. These people are European, so they may be treated better than 'non-Europeans,' given the double standards that usually apply. But apparently, at the Gare du Nord in Paris today, Ukrainians without visas who wanted to travel to Britain were turned back. Shameful.”
For a while now the Western media, in particular, has portrayed fleeing Muslim refugees from brutal Western wars as “radicals,” “terrorists,” “criminals” and “thieves.”
Thankfully, now both the rhetoric and representation of Ukrainian refugees reflect a brand new media approach. For now, Europe has fairly passed the current refugees test but let’s pray for there will be no more wars and no more people fleeing from crises. Only our collective resolute can achieve this righteous goal.
