Summary
Since February 24, 4.8 million Ukrainians have fled their country and the other 6.5 million are deemed to be displaced within Ukraine itself. Ukrainians have left for neighbouring countries where they had received generous treatment from state authorities. The same does not apply to people from Africa, the Middle East and Asia that are fleeing Ukraine.
KJ-1 It is highly likely that the number of refugees will continue to increase in the next 3 months.
- Since Russia invaded Ukraine on February 24, around 4.8 million Ukrainians have fled their country. Ukrainians refugees left for neighboring countries, such as Poland, Romania and Hungary. Poland is the country that has taken more refugees so far (2,514,504) followed by Romania (662,751) and Hungary (404,021). Around 6.5 million are deemed to be displaced within Ukraine itself. [source]
- Russian military forces have used heavy explosive weapons in highly populated areas, including missiles, heavy artillery shells, and airstrikes. Private houses, residential buildings, medical and educational facilities, water stations, electricity systems have been destroyed on a massive scale. Currently, 1.4 million people are without running water and other 4.6 million are at risk of losing access to it. As of April 15, a total of 1,982 civilians have been killed and a total of 2,651 have been injured. [source]
- Ukrainians refugee crisis is nearly the triple the size of the wave of migrants that reached Europe in 2015. Europe has not seen a refugee wave at this cale since WWII. [source]
- So far, nearly a quarter of the entire population has been forced to move, counting people that have fled the country and those that are displaced internally. Currently, men younger than 60 cannot leave the country. However, if they would start to join their families already abroad, the number of refugees would more than treble. [source]
KJ-2 It is likely that the EU will continue to support refugees in the next 3 months.
- Differently from the refugee crisis of 2015, Member States of the EU have welcomed people fleeing from Ukraine. The EU is providing emergency relief to displaced Ukrainians and support to Ukraine’s neighboring countries. The Commission has mobilized financial support for the Member States hosting refugees. In addition, the EU will provide help to build institutional and operational capacity to welcome Ukrainians refugees. [source]
- In addition, on March 3 the Commission has invoked for the first time the temporary-protection directive which gives Ukrainian the right to live, work and to have access to housing, social welfare and medical assistance within the EU. [source]
- Therefore, Ukrainians will not go through the long and uncertain process of applying for asylum that refugees in 2015 had to face.
KJ-3 It is likely that race-based discrimination will continue to persist in the next 3 months.
- By now, it has become clear that the refugee crisis of 2015 and the current one, met two different responses in the EU. In fact, the humanitarian crisis of 2015 was met with xenophobic and racist rhetoric, long and uncertain applications for asylum, and detention in refugees camps. This difference also explains why some of those that are fleeing from Ukraine are not receiving the same generous treatment as the citizens from Ukraine. [source]
- There are growing numbers of cases of people from Africa, the Middle East and Asia who have faced racist treatment and violence while trying to escape from Ukraine. Many have said that they were prevented from boarding trains and buses going to the border in Ukrainians towns. This is because Ukrainians were given priority. [source]
- Others said that they had been repeatedly refused entry to Poland. Others that they have been hit by armed Polish authorities. [source]
