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Video: Denise Garcia Bergt
Four weeks in to this war
and around 2 million refugees have fled Ukraine
and entered Europe fairly orderly
A day after the invasion,
there were already reception centres set up
on the border with Ukraine
facilitated by Poland’s government.
Poland! That in 2015 refused to take in refugees!
All of the sudden European countries
seemed prepared to welcome refugees
from the very start.
Germany is also behaving exemplary
More than 200 thousand refugees from Ukraine
have crossed the friendliest borders
Using the Deutsche Bahn especially-fast-created
“HelpUkraine tickets”
so that refugees can travel safe and for free
Telephone company providers
also offer their services free of charge
Calls for donations of goods and money
are available in every physical or virtual corner
Germans selflessly take in people
seeking protection to their homes
Volunteers can be seen in various train stations
ready to help and explain
the next steps of life in Germany
The Foreign office website was never so competent
In days they managed to make all information available
in different languages!
And sometimes even written in an emotional tone.
They inform that Ukrainian refugees
can apply for temporary asylum,
obtain legal permission to work,
access to social services like healthcare
and education for up to three years.
In 2015 when 1 million refugees came from outside Europe
the situation was described as a crisis,
it was considered unprecedented
something impossible to deal with!
Fact is Europeans think differently of ukraine refugees
Many say and I quote: “Look, Ukrainians are like us,
they have blonde hair, blue eyes,
they drive the same car as we do,
they are educated.”
And that is why we have been seeing
Racism at the borders!
Racism and discrimination against
Black and people of colour
fleeing Ukraine, being it students
or undocumented people,
It is still not clear if they ALSO can access all these services!
To what we can say:
They are human beings too!
They are fleeing the same bombs!
Make no mistake: We, the International women Space,
are not here to criticise the response to Ukraine
or any of these measures
On the contrary: that is exactly what we fight for:
A FAIR, HUMAN, JUST SYSTEM
OF WELCOMING REFUGEES
Where all asylum seekers
including those coming from outside Europe
have the universally recognised
right to seek asylum in Europe.