They will be left on the streets for an indefinite period of time

Jules Bordet - Vluchtelingenwerk Vlaanderen

On Monday, the arrival centre was the busiest I had ever seen it. I had expected to see a few families from Ukraine but I really was not prepared to meet so many so soon – I ran out of Russian leaflets within 10 minutes and had to send our new intern running back to our office to get more. Seeing so many people waiting for help was heart-breaking but my first concern when I saw the line of families meandering down the road was not for the families themselves but rather for the single men. There were more families present than during the crisis which meant that history was bound to repeat itself.

Unsurprisingly, our fears were confirmed within a matter of minutes. No single males would be able to enter and request asylum because the reception system was already operating at maximum capacity. You might have expected the State to have created some sort of contingency plan after the last crisis, or at least before inviting Ukrainians into the country, but it seems like the State wants to do everything in its power to avoid expanding the current reception system.

The lack of reception places has both direct and indirect consequences for applicants for international protection. Firstly, for the first time since starting this position I noticed that that there was a sense of unease between different groups of applicants. This mainly stemmed from the differential treatment of Ukrainian applicants.

On Monday and Tuesday most of the families who were able to access reception centres were Ukrainian while most of the single male applicants, who were turned away from the doors of Klein Kasteeltje, were fleeing other conflicts namely those in Afghanistan, Syria and Palestine. This left many of the men feeling like they were being discriminated against as a result of their nationality and questioning whether or not they are truly welcome in Belgium.

The fact that many have to spend several nights on the streets and cannot get accommodation from NGO’s because of the forever increasing demand for accommodation only serves to add fuel to the fire as these men have no idea when they will be able to escape the dangers associated with sleeping rough. While it is easy for the Startpunt team to understand why the situation was organised in the way it was, it is quite difficult to explain the logic behind the temporary directive for Ukrainian nationals and why families are automatically considered more vulnerable than single male applicants to applicants who have nowhere else to go.

This is especially the case when the person in front of you takes out a bundle of papers contesting to the fact that they have multiple medical problems – all stemming from the fact that they are living outside in the cold. What is even harder to explain is that while a doctor may have told these men that they are sick and need rest, their illnesses will not be enough for officials to consider them vulnerable. At the same time, these men have to face other dangers on the street.

"The lack of reception places has both direct and indirect consequences for applicants for international protection"

As a Startpunt team we tend to focus our discourse on the right to housing and how cold it is on the streets instead of on violence and crime. Nonetheless, assault and theft remain huge problems for many of those who are denied accommodation. Many people are also forced to place their trust in strangers which does not always work in their favour. Today, for example, we heard a very tragic story about a Palestinian man who was murdered by the man he was sleeping beside on the street. While I do not know the exact circumstances of the murder, I think it is safe to assume that if this man had been allocated a centre during the week when he first came to claim asylum, he would more than likely still be alive today.

The second big problem that we encountered was that there was no support or information being provided to third country national who had been living in Ukraine before the war. Like most countries, Ukraine has a significant foreign population consisting of students, short- and long-term workers, beneficiaries of international protection and their family members.

On Thursday, the Council of Ministers voted to implement the Temporary Protection Directive, a directive that many had considered redundant and has not been used even during previous crises such as the war in Syria or after the fall of Afghanistan. The Directive will allow Ukrainian nationals to automatically claim protection for one year after which their protection status can be extended for an additional two years if necessary. It was originally envisaged to provide protection to nationals, those with international protection and long-term residents in Ukraine, however, the Council ultimately decided to leave it up to individual Member States to decide whether or not they wanted to include this third category.

Of course, Belgium decided not to extend the Directive to include long term residents meaning that many people who have lived in Ukraine for several years are left with only two choices – return to their country of origin or apply for asylum. The problem is that most of these people are single male applicants and as such they cannot even enter Klein Kasteeltje to request asylum so like those men fleeing other conflicts around the world, they will be left on the streets for an indefinite period of time. Moreover, many of these men are students and economic migrants and as such they will find it difficult to obtain international protection even if they have no possibility of having the same standard of living in their country of origin.

"They will be left on the streets for an indefinite period of time"

I met one student who was studying medicine in Ukraine. He told me that he had already completed five out of his six years and that he did not want to go back to Congo if he was not a doctor. He explained that he left Congo so that he would have the opportunity to learn more about modern techniques in order to support his local community. He has already learned a lot in Ukraine but without his degree, he will not be able to practise in Congo or anywhere else in the world. Moreover, there will be no way for him to complete his final year in Congo without repeating the first five. His hope was that if he could somehow get a visa to stay in Belgium he might be able to complete his studies here given that Ukrainian universities follow a similar credit system to those in the EU.

None of the decisions made by officials so far have taken into consideration cases like this one but there are countless such cases. The other problem is that many third country nationals are struggling to even enter the EU. News outlets and aid workers have reported systemic discrimination along the Polish border with many third country nationals fleeing Ukraine being pushed into transit areas where they are forced to spend days waiting on decisions. Last week the Director of the International Organisation for Migration stated that he was ‘alarmed about verified credible reports of discrimination, violence and xenophobia against third country nationals attempting to flee the conflict in Ukraine’ he also added that ‘neighboring States need to ensure that all those fleeing Ukraine are granted unhindered access to territory, regardless of status and in accordance with International Humanitarian Law.

Protection and immediate assistance must be provided in a non-discriminatory and culturally appropriate manner, in line with the humanitarian imperative, to all conflict-affected people throughout their journey to safety.’ What makes the situation even worse is that the conflict in Ukraine will have ripple effects in many developing states. Ukraine has extremely fertile black soil which has allowed the country to develop into one of the world’s most important exporters of grains such as wheat and barley. In 2020, over 18 million tonnes of wheat alone were exported from Ukraine to countries all over the world including the EU, China, Indonesia, Yemen, Bangladesh, Sudan, Lebanon and Libya.

"This is something that Belgium need to take into consideration before it is, once again, too late!"

The worrying problem is that many countries experiencing food shortages import large percentages of their grain from Ukraine. For example, according to the Food and Agriculture Organisation, half of the wheat consumed in Lebanon in 2020 came from Ukraine. This figure should not be taken lightly considering that 35 percent of the populations calorific intake derives from wheat-based products. Similarly, in the same year Yemen and Libya imported 22 and 43 percent respectively while 21 percent of the wheat consumed in Bangladesh was imported from Ukraine. If Ukrainian grains are taken off the market, it is likely that the price of basic grains will increase dramatically which will add additional strain on some of the world’s poorest countries whose own agricultural productivity has been significantly reduced as a result of years of drought and conflict. This is bad news at a time when several countries are already experiencing increased malnutrition as a result of pandemic related supply chain disruptions and inflation.

As climate change continues to exacerbate droughts, it is likely that those who cannot afford increasing grain prices will be forced to migrate. Nonetheless, they are unlikely to receive a warm welcome in the EU especially given the fact that climate refugees who are forced to flee famine and drought do not fit within the narrow framework set out in the 1950 Geneva Convention on the Status of Refugees. This is something that EU States including Belgium need to take into consideration before it is, once again, too late!

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