There is now increasing tendency among European countries to reject Ukrainian refugees.

Soon after the outbreak of the Ukrainian crisis, the European Union (EU) adopted “Temporary Protection Directive” and publicised it as a “historic decision”. It is said that the core of this directive is to allow Ukrainian refugees to move freely within the EU and to immediately grant them with the right to residence, the right to labour and other rights to social welfare.

Many European countries were in their eagerness to receive the Ukrainian refugees on a large scale and provide them accommodation, jobs, subsidies, free transportation, etc. Such a look was never found before, not to mention the time when there was a refugee crisis in Syria.

The media and experts commented that the EU took “active and prompt refugee protection measure” this time.

However, as the Ukrainian crisis drags on and the number of refugees increases day by day, expulsion of refugees finds striking manifestation in not a few European countries.

A lot of world media including “Eurasia Daily” and “Rzeczpospolita” reported that Czech stopped receiving Ukrainian refugees from June 15, and some shops in Prague even put signs “No Ukrainians”. They also reported that the UK is intentionally delaying giving an approval to the Ukrainian children for their entry into its country.

RTE, YLE and other media carried the news that much criticism is levelled at the settlement of the Ukrainian refugees in European countries. A member of European Parliament from Ireland aired open complaints raising the question as to what kind of benefit does the settlement of the Ukrainian refugees bring. People in Germany and other European countries criticise their governments for supporting the refugees by their own taxes.

Against this backdrop, some European countries made a decision to suspend payment of the state subsidies that were used to pay for the lodging and boarding of Ukrainian refugees. Their governments are also cancelling other measures to support the refugees one after another.

This has led to worsening living conditions of the Ukrainian refugees. The number is growing among them who are appealing to send them back to their homes as they have to go through complicated formalities for residence and can no longer put up with hard life caused by insufficient subsidies, etc.

NGOs and voluntary services are lamenting that many refugees who had already got jobs and left to share the rooms with the residents in cities are returning back to makeshift homes.

The media are saying that the contributing factor to this is the failure of EU to provide its member states with its promised additional fund, asking in return the whereabouts of the “active and prompt temporary protection directive” meant to immediately grant rights to social welfare to refugees.

The above-mentioned facts clearly show that the “human rights protection” and “humanitarianism” advocated by the EU and European countries are nothing but flowery words only used to suit their own needs.

Kim Gang Sok

Researcher of Korea-Europe Association