Will Ukraine change how Europe treats future refugees?
‘We all live in a world that is very vulnerable and very fragile,’ says UNHCR’s Joung-ah Ghedini-Williams.
More than two million people have fled the fighting in Ukraine in the two weeks since Russia launched its invasion, with projections indicating an additional three million people are likely to leave the country in the coming weeks – making this the largest displacement of people in Europe since World War II.
As Ukrainians flee, European leaders rush to proclaim that they will be welcomed into their countries with open arms and open doors. European Union nations have unanimously agreed to accept Ukrainian refugees for three years without going through the asylum process.
But until recently, these same countries had been ringing the alarm over having to receive refugees from Africa, Asia and the Middle East.
So what is different about Ukraine? Why are European refugees treated differently to those from other parts of the world? And what can the world learn from this latest crisis?
On UpFront, Joung-ah Ghedini-Williams, the UNHCR’s head of global communications, and Kate White, Doctors Without Borders’ (Medecins Sans Frontieres) emergency programme director, join Marc Lamont Hill to discuss what lies ahead for Ukrainian refugees and what the shift in rhetoric could mean for future displaced peoples.