Denmark opens its arms to Ukrainians, while trying to send Syrian refugees home & More News Here

This could be in keeping with the European Union granting non permanent safety for Ukrainians, permitting them to enter the bloc with out a visa and to select which nation to go to.

Those eligible could be given protected standing — comparable to that of a refugee — in any EU nation for a one-year interval, which can be reviewed in future. This is a stark distinction with the EU’s asylum guidelines the place refugees should ask for asylum within the first member state they entered. Efforts by the EU to reform this method and assist to equitably resettle asylum-seekers across the bloc have been unsuccessful.

While combating has subsided significantly within the area round Damascus, activists say the Danish authorities is actively placing Syrians in hurt’s manner.

In a press release to CNN, the Danish Ministry of Immigration and Integration Affairs stated all refugees had been handled the identical. “Regardless of the law on temporary residence permits for persons expelled from Ukraine, all persons applying for asylum in Denmark have the same rights in the Danish asylum system.”

It added that about 30,000 Syrians who’ve been granted a residence allow in Denmark since 2014 nonetheless reside within the nation.

But Michala Clante Bendixen, the pinnacle of Refugees Welcome Denmark, which advocates for a streamlined asylum system, stated the disparity in remedy suggests the federal government locations a better worth on White lives.

Bendixen stated the 2015 migrant disaster had proven that: “If people arrive from Afghanistan or Syria, they will be met with suspicion, they will be called migrants until they [gain] refugee [status]. But now we immediately call Ukrainians refugees. What’s the difference?

“It’s so disappointing and so horrible that persons are so restricted of their empathy with different human beings on this planet,” she added.

Punitive policies

Syrian-born siblings Dania and Hussam, who integrated fully into Danish society after arriving in the country as refugees in 2015, have been caught in Denmark’s anti-immigrant dragnet, say campaigners.

The pair, now in their 20s and fluent Danish speakers, have spent the past year in limbo, after Danish authorities decided not to extend their father’s residency permit, which their own visas are linked to. They are appealing the decision.

While the Danish government cannot repatriate Syrians as it does not have diplomatic relations with Syria, it aims to compel them to leave by making Denmark as inhospitable a place as possible to live in, and covering their travel costs to return, say asylum experts.

In 2021, Tesfaye, the Danish minister for immigration and integration, defended the policy in a statement to CNN, saying that “Denmark has been open and sincere from day one” that residence permits for Syrian refugees are “non permanent, and that the allow will be revoked if the necessity for cover ceases to exist.

“The approach of the Danish government is to provide protection to those in need of it, but when the conditions in their home country have improved, former refugees should return to the home country and reestablish their life there,” Tesfaye added.

Those who’ve exhausted all authorized avenues to enchantment their misplaced residency standing face being despatched to deportation amenities, which Bendixen describes as open-air prisons designed to break folks down.

Stoklund, international affairs spokesperson for the ruling Social Democratic Party, instructed CNN the jewellery legislation won’t apply to Ukrainians as they won’t be a part of the asylum system if the draft laws is authorised.

“They don’t need human smugglers,” she defined. “They don’t need to risk their lives on small sinking boats or in the desert to travel safely to Europe … they will not have to go through the asylum system — which is very slow and can easily take a year before you get your case decided.”

“But identity is not the whole story,” stated Abdelaaty, an assistant professor at Syracuse University within the US state of New York. “There is a foreign policy dimension to this too. It matters that Ukrainians are fleeing a Russian invasion. Welcoming them is another way for European countries to condemn Putin and to powerfully signal which side of the conflict they are on.”

The 2015 migrant disaster noticed an estimated 1 million asylum-seekers enter Europe. They had been greeted by a skeptical press, an increase in anti-migrant policymaking — as seen in Denmark — and an increase in assist for far-right events, following a collection of ISIS terrorist assaults over the next yr.

“And, now, suddenly, even more people are arriving in two weeks and everybody’s like: ‘Oh, yeah, we can handle it and we have lots of space and they should be welcome,’” Bendixen stated.

As Russian airstrikes change into extra indiscriminate, the United Nations stated Tuesday that the outflow of Ukrainian refugees hit 2 million as primarily girls, kids, and the aged search refuge from the unprovoked aggression. Those numbers are anticipated to swell as assaults intensify on quite a few key cities and cities.

The response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine exhibits that international locations like Denmark can absorb refugees with compassion. The coloration of a refugee’s pores and skin, or their faith, should have no bearing on that response, activists say.