Tag: Refugees

Alarm sounded over migrants stranded in no man’s land on Europe border

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What’s happening in Greece’s Evros region “shows the dark side of EU migration policy”, one analyst told Euronews.

NGOs have raised the alarm over a large group of people stranded in a de facto no man’s land on the European Union border. 

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Alarm Phone, a hotline for refugees and migrants in distress, was alerted in mid-July to 52 people – including pregnant women, children as young as three years old and the elderly – stuck on a small islet in the Evros River (known in Turkish as the Meriç River), which separates Greece and Turkey. 

They have been stranded there ever since, with the group claiming to have been violently attacked each time they try to escape to either country.  

The Border Violence Monitoring Network (BVMN) on Tuesday accused the Greek and Turkish armies of playing “football” with the group, pushing them back and forth between each other’s territory, as their humanitarian situation grows increasingly “dire”.

Greece’s Ministry of Civil Protection has been approached for comment. 

In a statement published on Monday, Alarm Phone alleged the besieged group – mostly from Syria and Iraq – had suffered “barbaric violence” during the weeks-long “odyssey” – despite repeated appeals to the authorities to evacuate them.

Authorities have also been called on to urgently provide food, water and medical care, with some members of the group injured and suffering health issues.

Two members of the group are reportedly missing, presumed dead. 

“The violent act of leaving people for days being stuck on an islet not only risks physical injuries, but is a mental torment in and of itself that traumatises people,” wrote Alarm Phone. 

Following the 2015 European Migration Crisis, Greece has been routinely accused of systematically detaining migrants and forcing them out of the EU in a practice known as pushbacks. 

Greek officials deny they are happening. 

Multiple pushbacks have been recorded by the BVMN and other NGOs where migrants are loaded onto small inflatable dinghies – often by masked men –  and dumped on small barren islands within the fast-flowing Evros River.

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They then remain in de facto no man’s land, outside the territory of either Greece or Turkey. Owing to the unclear status of the islets, authorities have claimed in the past they are outside of their jurisdiction, and therefore also outside their responsibility. 

Migrants have reportedly died while trying to swim off the islands or been forced to stay there for prolonged periods of time in wet clothes and freezing conditions, typically without water or supplies, after being forced to jump into the water and wade to the islands. 

“The situation at the Evros land border between Greece and Turkey is untenable,” said Hope Barker, policy analyst at BVMN. “Violence is routine and an everyday occurrence, people on the move are dying and going missing.”

“What’s happening in Evros shows the dark side of EU migration policy that has been pushed away from the eyes of Northern European states and is playing out in the shadowy militarised zones of frontline states where it can neither be seen nor heard.”

Alarm Phone said it alerted the Greek authorities on 13 July about the trapped group. Greek officials informed them on 22 July that despite “extensive searches… no human presence was found,” they said.

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The BVMN called Greece’s claim “implausible” given the “extensive funding” they received from the EU to police the border, alleging they were “concealing pushback operations”. 

Days later, on 28 July, the group informed Alarm Phone they had been stormed by “police and mercenaries… [who] started to hit the world,” forcing some to flee into the water. 

The group sent a video purporting to show the abuse, though Euronews cannot verify its authenticity.

Facing an untenable situation, the group reportedly tried to leave the islet on 3 August, but were intercepted by what they called “police”. 

One woman alleged she and other female members of the group were made to strip, with the men forced to stare at them, before they were returned to the island.

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The group claimed to have been assaulted once again on 7 August, which the BVMN reported put them in “extreme distress“, with some members of the group now in a “critical medical condition”.

These reports are consistent with a well-established pattern documented by BVMN and other NGOs regarding pushbacks from Greece. 

In 196 push-back victims’ testimonies collected by the BVMN since 2019, 92% contained reports of physical beatings and 58% of individuals being forcibly undressed. 

Forced stripping has also been documented by Human Rights Watch, besides assaults and theft against migrants in the Evros region by the Greek authorities. 

Greece denies engaging in illegal activity at their borders. 

All individuals inside the EU are protected from inhuman or degrading treatment and punishment, under the bloc’s Charter of Fundamental Rights. 

Turkey, which signed a €16 billion with the EU to stop people travelling irregularly to Greece, is obligated to offer people the right to claim asylum under the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. It is currently home to the world’s largest refugee population, hosting 3.7 million people according to the UNHCR. 

“Greece protects the external borders of the European Union, in total compliance with international law and in full respect of the [EU] Charter of Fundamental Rights,” Greek Migration Minister Notis Mitarachi insisted early last year.

BVMN policy analyst Barker called on the EU to stem pushbacks, which the UNHCR, the UN’s refugee agency, has warned that they “risk becoming normalised, and policy based”.  

“The EU cannot wash its hands of what is happening in the Evros border region, this is a direct result of their pushback policy which has become the silent, unspoken, yet central pillar of EU migration management,” said BVMN policy analyst Barker. 

“When people are systematically not given access to asylum, have their rights violated, and are attacked, and the Commission says nothing – they are complicit.”

Strandings on these islets are far from isolated. In August 2022, the BVMN documented a case of a large group of mostly Syrian nationals, who were trapped there for weeks in the extreme heat, without access to food or water.



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A compassionate and sustainable EU asylum system is not impossible

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By Harlem Désir, IRC Senior Vice President, Europe

Everybody has the right to claim asylum on EU territory and should not be deterred or prevented from doing so, Harlem Désir writes.

While uncertainties remain about the circumstances surrounding this month’s devastating shipwreck off the Greek coast, one thing is for sure: Europe’s approach to migration and asylum is failing. 

It is failing people seeking protection in Europe, often with a deadly human cost. 

It is failing to share responsibilities for new arrivals fairly across Europe or to properly support host communities. 

And it is failing to bring any sense of order to the migration process, fuelling populist and far-right narratives.

The EU’s New Pact on Asylum and Migration was intended to address these problems and, as European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said back in 2020, “rise to the challenge to manage migration jointly”. 

However, there is a risk that the current proposals, agreed between member states this month, may, in fact, further entrench some of the most problematic elements of the current system.

The EU needs to press pause on its permanent state of “crisis” and take stock of what is really needed to create a truly humane, sustainable EU migration and asylum policy.

Contrary to the claims of some politicians and commentators, this is perfectly within its grasp. Here’s how.

A lack of political will has weakened Europe’s solidarity

First, the EU needs to create a concrete, predictable mechanism for states to show solidarity with countries of first arrival, like Greece and Italy, so they do not bear disproportionate responsibility for supporting new arrivals. 

This should be centred on relocations — in other words, transferring new arrivals from their first country of arrival to other EU states where their asylum claim will be processed. 

Such a system would take the pressure off Europe’s border states, making them less likely to attempt to violently push people back from their territory and more inclined to scale up search and rescue operations in line with their moral and legal obligations.

Worryingly, a lack of political will from certain member states has left the current New Pact agreement relatively weak when it comes to solidarity. 

With other parts of the package heavily focused on mandatory border procedures, which would likely see more people detained in their country of first arrival, the Pact looks likely to increase responsibilities on southern states — not reduce them. 

It’s vital that EU leaders rethink this approach and ensure that all elements of the Pact are pulling in the same direction to ease the burden on frontline states.

Ramping up safe routes could prevent deadly journeys

Secondly, EU leaders need to recognise that nobody embarks on dangerous journeys in search of protection unless they feel they have no other option. 

Yet, tragically this is too often the case. The EU’s failure to adequately scale up existing and create more safe pathways effectively slams the door on people seeking protection — leaving many stranded in countries where they are unsafe and putting them at risk of abuse and exploitation.

It’s critical that Europe ramps up safe routes so people are not forced onto deadly journeys. 

One under-used tool that would help towards this goal is refugee resettlement in cooperation with UNHCR. 

Last year, a record 2 million refugees were in need of this vital lifeline. Yet, despite pledging to welcome over 20,000 refugees through this pathway, EU states collectively resettled just 17,000 — equating to an average of just 618 new arrivals per member state and accounting for only 1.1% of global needs. 

Our continent has an obligation to treat people with dignity and humanity

The EU can and must do better. It’s vital that EU states commit to resettling at least 44,000 refugees in 2024, with a view to further scaling this up to a number more proportionate to Europe’s wealth and size. 

They must also adopt the Union Resettlement Framework, another key part of the Pact which would establish a more structured, predictable and longstanding EU policy on resettlement.

Third, if new arrivals are to thrive in their new communities, it’s essential that they are treated with dignity and humanity on arrival in Europe. 

The IRC’s experience from countries including Greece shows that keeping people in remote facilities, under constant surveillance and behind barbed wire fences, prevents their inclusion into local communities and has a devastating impact on their mental health. 

Instead of deterring and detaining new arrivals, it is in everyone’s interest to invest in inclusion — ensuring that all have access to dignified housing, physical and mental health support, and the training and support needed to rebuild their lives and contribute to their new communities.

A humane EU asylum system is indeed possible

Finally, this tragic shipwreck is a stark reminder that all EU states have a legal obligation to uphold the right to asylum in Europe. 

Everybody has the right to claim asylum on EU territory and should not be deterred or prevented from doing so. 

The New Pact must include a commitment from each member state to establish a robust, fully independent border monitoring mechanism which will not only keep track of any attempts to undermine this right but will hold those responsible for violations to account.

It’s time to dispel the myth that a truly humane EU asylum system is not possible. The EU’s remarkable response to people fleeing Ukraine proves otherwise. 

The true crisis is not that people are asking for refuge but the glaring lack of political will to provide it.

Harlem Désir is the International Rescue Committee’s Senior Vice-President, Europe. Previously, he was the founder and president of SOS Racisme, a Member of the European Parliament, the French Secretary of State for European Affairs and OSCE Representative on Freedom of the Media.

At Euronews, we believe all views matter. Contact us at [email protected] to send pitches or submissions and be part of the conversation.

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Questions mount over latest migrant tragedy in Mediterranean

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Anger is growing over the handling of a migrant boat disaster off Greece last week that has become one of the biggest tragedies in the Mediterranean in years. The calamity is dominating the country’s political agenda a week ahead of snap elections.

The Hellenic Coast Guard is facing increasing questions over its response to the fishing boat that sank off Greece’s southern peninsula on Wednesday, leading to the death of possibly hundreds of migrants. Nearly 80 people are known to have perished in the wreck and hundreds are still missing, according to the U.N.’s migration and refugee agencies.

Critics say that the Greek authorities should have acted faster to keep the vessel from capsizing. There are testimonies from survivors that the Coast Guard tied up to the vessel and attempted to pull it, causing the boat to sway, which the Greek authorities strongly deny.

The boat may have been carrying as many as 750 passengers, including women and children, according to reports. Many of them were trapped underneath the deck in the sinking, according to Frontex, the European Border and Coast Guard Agency. “The ship was heavily overcrowded,” Frontex said.  

About 100 people are known to have survived the sinking. Authorities continued to search for victims and survivors over the weekend.

The disaster may be “the worst tragedy ever” in the Mediterranean Sea, European Commissioner for Home Affairs Ylva Johansson said on Friday. She said there has been a massive increase in the number of migrant boats heading from Libya to Europe since the start of the year.

Frontex said in a statement on Friday that no agency plane or boat was present at the time of the capsizing on Wednesday. The agency said it alerted the Greek and Italian authorities about the vessel after a Frontex plane spotted it, but the Greek officials waved off an offer of additional help.

Greece has been at the forefront of Europe’s migration crisis since 2015, when hundreds of thousands of people from the Middle East, Asia and Africa traveled thousands of miles across the Continent hoping to claim asylum.

Migration and border security have been key issues in the Greek political debate. Following Wednesday’s wreck, they have jumped to the top of the agenda, a week before national elections on June 25.

Greece is currently led by a caretaker government. Under the conservative New Democracy administration, in power until last month, the country adopted a tough migration policy. In late May, the EU urged Greece to launch a probe into alleged illegal deportations.

New Democracy leader Kyriakos Mitsotakis, who is expected to return to the prime minister’s office after the vote next Sunday, blasted criticism of the Greek authorities, saying it should instead be directed to the human traffickers, who he called “human scums.”

“It is very unfair for some so-called ‘people in solidarity’ [with refugees and migrants] to insinuate that the [Coast Guard] did not do its job. … These people are out there … battling the waves to rescue human lives and protect our borders,” Mitsotakis, who maintains a significant lead in the polls, said during a campaign event in Sparta on Saturday.

The Greek authorities claimed the people on board, some thought to be the smugglers who had arranged the boat from Libya, refused assistance and insisted on reaching Italy. So the Greek Coast Guard did not intervene, though it monitored the vessel for more than 15 hours before it eventually capsized.

“What orders did the authorities have, and they didn’t intervene because one of these ‘scums’ didn’t give them permission?” the left-wing Syriza party said in a statement. “Why was no order given to the lifeboat … to immediately assist in a rescue operation? … Why were life jackets not distributed … and why Frontex assistance was not requested?”

Alarm Phone, a network of activists that helps migrants in danger, said the Greek authorities had been alerted repeatedly many hours before the boat capsized and that there was insufficient rescue capacity.

According to a report by WDR citing migrants’ testimonies, attempts were made to tow the endangered vessel, but in the process the boat began to sway and sank. Similar testimonies by survivors appeared in Greek media.

A report on Greek website news247.gr said the vessel remained in the same spot off the town of Pylos for at least 11 hours before sinking. According to the report, the location on the chart suggests the vessel was not on a “steady course and speed” toward Italy, as the Greek Coast Guard said.

After initially saying that there was no effort to tow the boat, the Hellenic Coast Guard said on Friday that a patrol vessel approached and used a “small buoy” to engage the vessel in a procedure that lasted a few minutes and then was untied by the migrants themselves.

Coast Guard spokesman Nikos Alexiou defended the agency. “You cannot carry out a violent diversion on such a vessel with so many people on board, without them wanting to, without any sort of cooperation,” he said.

Alexiou said there is no video of the operation available.

Nine people, most of them from Egypt, were arrested over the capsizing, charged with forming a criminal organization with the purpose of illegal migrant trafficking, causing a shipwreck and endangering life. They will appear before a magistrate on Monday, according to Greek judicial authorities.

“Unfortunately, we have seen this coming because since the start of the year, there was a new modus operandi with these fishing boats leaving from the eastern part of Libya,” the EU’s Johansson told a press conference on Friday. “And we’ve seen an increase of 600 percent of these departures this year,” she added.

Greek Supreme Court Prosecutor Isidoros Dogiakos has urged absolute secrecy in the investigations being conducted in relation to the shipwreck.

Thousands of people took to the streets in different cities in Greece last week to protest the handling of the incident and the migration policies of Greece and the EU. More protests were planned for Sunday.



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Moldova ramps up EU membership push amid fears of Russia-backed coup

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CHIȘINĂU, Moldova — Tens of thousands of Moldovans descended on the central square of the capital on Sunday, waving flags and homemade placards in support of the country’s push to join the EU and make a historic break with Moscow.

With Russia’s war raging just across the border in Ukraine, the government of this tiny Eastern European nation called the rally in an effort to overcome internal divisions and put pressure on Brussels to begin accession talks, almost a year after Moldova was granted EU candidate status.

“Joining the EU is the best way to protect our democracy and our institutions,” Moldova’s President Maia Sandu told POLITICO at Chișinău’s presidential palace, as a column of her supporters marched past outside. “I call on the EU to take a decision on beginning accession negotiations by the end of the year. We think we have enough support to move forward.”

Speaking alongside Sandu at what was billed as a “national assembly,” European Parliament President Roberta Metsola declared that “Europe is Moldova. Moldova is Europe!” The crowd, many holding Ukrainian flags and the gold-and-blue starred banner of the EU, let out a cheer. An orchestra on stage played the bloc’s anthem, Ode to Joy.

“In recent years, you have taken decisive steps and now you have the responsibility to see it through, even with this war on your border,” Metsola said. “The Republic of Moldova is ready for integration into the single European market.”

However, the jubilant rally comes amid warnings that Moscow is doing everything it can to keep the former Soviet republic within its self-declared sphere of influence.

In February, the president of neighboring Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, warned that his country’s security forces had disrupted a plot to overthrow Moldova’s pro-Western government. Officials in Chișinău later said the Russian-backed effort could have involved sabotage, attacks on government buildings and hostage-taking. Moscow officially denies the claims.

“Despite previous efforts to stay neutral, Moldova is finding itself in the Kremlin’s crosshairs — whether they want to be or not, they’re party of this broader conflict in Ukraine,” said Arnold Dupuy, a senior fellow at the Atlantic Council think tank in Washington.

“There’s an effort by the Kremlin to turn the country into a ‘southern Kaliningrad,’ putting in place a friendly regime that allows them to attack the Ukrainians’ flanks,” Dupuy said. “But this hasn’t been as effective as the Kremlin hoped and they’ve actually strengthened the government’s hand to look to the EU and NATO for protection.”

Responding to the alleged coup attempt, Brussels last month announced it would deploy a civilian mission to Moldova to combat growing threats from Russia. According to Josep Borrell, the EU’s top diplomat, the deployment under the terms of the Common Security and Defense Policy, will provide “support to Moldova [to] protect its security, territorial integrity and sovereignty.”

Bumps on the road to Brussels

Last week, Sandu again called on Brussels to begin accession talks “as soon as possible” in order to protect Moldova from what she said were growing threats from Russia. “Nothing compares to what is happening in Ukraine, but we see the risks and we do believe that we can save our democracy only as part of the EU,” she said. A group of influential MEPs from across all of the main parties in the European Parliament have tabled a motion calling for the European Commission to start the negotiations by the end of the year.

But, after decades as one of Russia’s closest allies, Moldova knows its path to EU membership isn’t without obstacles.

“The challenge is huge,” said Tom de Waal, a senior fellow at Carnegie Europe. “They will need to overcome this oligarchic culture that has operated for 30 years where everything is informal, institutions are very weak and large parts of the bureaucracy are made viable by vested interests.”

At the same time, a frozen conflict over the breakaway region of Transnistria, in the east of Moldova, could complicate matters still further. The stretch of land along the border with Ukraine, home to almost half a million people, has been governed since the fall of the Soviet Union by pro-Moscow separatists, and around 1,500 Russian troops are stationed there despite Chișinău demanding they leave. It’s also home to one of the Continent’s largest weapons stockpiles, with a reported 20,000 tons of Soviet-era ammunition.

“Moldova cannot become a member of the EU with Russian troops on its territory against the will of the Republic of Moldova itself, so we will need to solve this before membership,” Romanian MEP Siegfried Mureșan, chair of the European Parliament’s delegation to the country, told POLITICO.

“We do not know now what a solution could look like, but the fact that we do not have an answer to this very specific element should not prevent us from advancing Moldova’s European integration in all other areas where we can,” Mureșan said.

While she denied that Brussels had sent any official signals that Moldova’s accession would depend on Russian troops leaving the country, Sandu said that “we do believe that in the next months and years there may be a geopolitical opportunity to resolve this conflict.”

Ties that bind

Even outside of Transnistria, Moscow maintains significant influence in Moldova. While Romanian is the country’s official language, Russian is widely used in daily life while the Kremlin’s state media helps shape public opinion — and in recent months has turned up the dial on its attacks on Sandu’s government.

A study by Chișinău-based pollster CBS Research in February found that while almost 54 percent of Moldovans say they would vote in favor of EU membership, close to a quarter say they would prefer closer alignment with Russia. Meanwhile, citizens were split on who to blame for the war in Ukraine, with 25 percent naming Russian President Vladimir Putin and 18 percent saying the U.S.

“Putin is not a fool,” said one elderly man who declined to give his name, shouting at passersby on the streets of the capital. “I hate Ukrainians.”

Outside of the capital, the pro-Russian ȘOR Party has held counter-protests in several regional cities.

Almost entirely dependent on Moscow for its energy needs, Moldova has seen Russia send the cost of gas skyrocketing in what many see as an attempt at blackmail. Along with an influx of Ukrainian refugees, the World Bank reported that Moldova’s GDP “contracted by 5.9 percent and inflation reached an average of 28.7 percent in 2022.”

“We will buy energy sources from democratic countries, and we will not support Russian aggression in exchange for cheap gas,” Sandu told POLITICO.

The Moldovan president, a former World Bank economist who was elected in 2020 on a wave of anti-corruption sentiment, faces a potentially contentious election battle next year. With the process of EU membership set to take years, or even decades, it remains to be seen whether the country will stay the course in the face of pressure from the Kremlin.

For Aurelia, a 40-year-old Moldovan who tied blue and yellow ribbons into her hair for Sunday’s rally, the choice is obvious. “We’ve been a part of the Russian world my whole life. Now we want to live well, and we want to live free.”



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Sudan’s two warring generals agree to seven-day truce ‘in principle’

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Warring generals in Sudan have agreed “in principle” to a seven-day ceasefire, the government of neighbouring South Sudan said Tuesday, after regional envoys denounced repeated violations of previous truces.

Diplomatic efforts have intensified to end more than two weeks of war in Africa‘s third-largest country as warnings multiply about a “catastrophic” humanitarian crisis.

More than 430,000 people have already been forced to flee their homes, the United Nations said.

Hundreds of others have been killed and thousands wounded. 

Sudan’s army chief Abdel Fattah al-Burhan and his deputy turned rival, Mohamed Hamdan Daglo, who commands the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF), “have agreed in principle for a seven-day truce from May 4th to 11th,” the South Sudanese foreign ministry in Juba said in a statement.

 


 

Multiple truces agreed since fighting began on April 15 have been repeatedly violated, including one announced by South Sudan early in the war.

Witnesses reported renewed air strikes and anti-aircraft fire in Khartoum on Tuesday.

The repeated violations sparked criticism earlier Tuesday at a meeting in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, of the Extended Mechanism on the Sudan Crisis which brought together African, Arab, UN and other representatives.

The two generals have agreed to truces – the latest one on Sunday – yet “continue fighting and shelling the city”, said Ismail Wais, of the northeast African bloc IGAD which includes Sudan and South Sudan.

‘No longer safe’

“Our priority today is to have the ceasefire prolonged and respected, then to ensure humanitarian assistance,” African Union Commission chairman Moussa Faki Mahamat said, opening the meeting.

The later agreement of the week-long truce came in a phone conversation South Sudan’s President Salva Kiir had with the warring parties as part of IGAD’s initiative for a pause in fighting, Juba’s foreign ministry said.

“We’ll have to see whether this is accepted by all the parties and whether it’s implemented by the forces on the ground,” said Farhan Haq, the UN chief’s deputy spokesman.

Kenyan President William Ruto said earlier that the conflict had reached “catastrophic levels” and finding ways to provide humanitarian relief “with or without a ceasefire” was imperative.

The UN refugee agency said more than 100,000 people were estimated to have fled to Sudan’s neighbours.

Despite the dire humanitarian needs, on Tuesday the UN said its 2023 aid appeal for Sudan was $1.5 billion short.

But some relief has been arriving in the country.


© france24

 

After the World Health Organization (WHO) shipped in six containers of medical equipment, including supplies for treating trauma injuries, Doctors Without Borders (MSF) on Tuesday said it delivered 10 tonnes of supplies to a hospital in Khartoum as teams prepared to “launch emergency response activities.”

Only 16 percent of Khartoum’s hospitals are now fully functional, according to the UN.

A Sudanese physician, Howida Elhassan, posted a social media video of medical staff struggling to cope with a surge of wounded civilians at a hospital in Khartoum’s East Nile neighbourhood.

Blood appeared to stain the floor of the crowded facility where patients, one who seemed to grimace in pain with blood on his shirt, lay or sat on cots.

“On days when there are battles in the area, we receive between 30 to 40 injured people,” in addition to regular cases, Elhassan said. “Other medical staff cannot reach us because roads are no longer safe. We are understaffed and lack equipment.”

In addition to the more than 500 killed in the fighting, 250 are estimated to be missing, said a spokesman for the Mafqud (Missing) online project.

Munira Edwin turned to the project when her brother Babiker disappeared on the first day of fighting. Mafqud called her back nearly two weeks later.

“He had been found dead with two bullets” in his body, she said, struggling to hold back tears.

It was too late on Monday, as well, for the victim who several men carried into a Khartoum hospital, covered in a grey cloth after a van was riddled with bullets. The back seat was soaked in blood. Luggage rested on the roof, as if the passengers had been trying to flee.

At risk of getting caught in the crossfire, some civilians still venture out. Long queues formed Tuesday at petrol stations offering the scarce commodity, as well as at banks and ATMs.

Ahead of the South Sudanese announcement, UN head of mission Volker Perthes said discussions involving Saudi and US mediators were underway with the rival generals to firm up a truce.

Burhan’s envoy, Dafaallah al-Haj, was in Cairo where he met senior Egyptian and Arab League officials.

Haj told a press conference that he hoped the Arab League, African Union, Saudi Arabia and the US could play a role in such talks toward a more lasting truce.

While diplomats try to stop the fighting, foreign governments have scrambled to evacuate their citizens, thousands of whom have been brought to safety by air or sea in operations that are now winding down.

Darfur exodus

Russia’s armed forces said on Tuesday they were evacuating more than 200 people from Sudan on four military transport planes.

Saudi Arabia said it transported another 220 people to Jeddah.

Beyond Khartoum, lawlessness has engulfed the Darfur region from where more than 70 percent of the 330,000 people displaced inside Sudan by the fighting have fled, according to the International Organization for Migration.

Darfur is still scarred by a war that erupted in 2003 when then-strongman Omar al-Bashir unleashed the Janjaweed militia, mainly recruited from Arab pastoralist tribes, against ethnic minority rebels.The Janjaweed – whose actions led to war crimes charges against Bashir and others – later evolved into the RSF.

(AFP)



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Mass exodus from Sudan as deadly fighting enters third week

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Hundreds of thousands of Sudanese have fled Khartoum and the Darfur region to seek refuge in neighbouring countries amid ongoing deadly clashes between Sudan’s army and the rival paramilitary group the Rapid Support Forces (RSF). But the violence that grips the country is making it hard for them to leave.

Hundreds of thousands of people have fled Sudan in the past two weeks, according to the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights. But thousands remain trapped in the country.

Violent battles between the forces of army chief Abdel Fattah al-Burhan and his former number two Mohamed Hamdan Daglo, who commands the paramilitary RSF, have rocked the country since April 15. The deadly clashes have sparked a mass exodus of civilians, the scale of which is still hard to pin down.

Tens of thousands of people from the western Darfur region, which is especially volatile, have crossed the border into Chad. Others are trying to reach South Sudan, the Central African Republic, Egypt or Ethiopia, raising fears of vast displacement from a country with 45 million inhabitants, one of the largest in Africa.

Fruitless truces

Despite the latest three-day ceasefire set to expire at midnight, army forces clashed with paramilitaries on Sunday in Sudan’s capital Khartoum. Fighting was reported around the army headquarters in the centre of the city, with the Sudanese army also carrying out air strikes in the capital’s twin city of Omdurman across the Nile River.

Although countries like Saudi Arabia, France and the United States have managed to repatriate nationals and diplomats back home in recent days, millions of civilians living in Khartoum are caught up in the chaos gripping the megacity. Without outside help, they face a dilemma: risk their lives on the road or stay cloistered in their homes, where they endure crippling shortages of water and electricity.     

“To leave the city, you have to dodge bombing raids. Roads are no longer safe and armed attacks happen frequently. Travel costs have also quadrupled and there is a gas shortage,” explains Omar*, a Sudanese journalist whose family managed to flee Khartoum on April 26.

“In the east of the country where I live, things are still calm. Some people come here to seek refuge in big cities like Kassala, Al-Qadarif and Port Sudan. Others head towards Ethiopia in the east or Egypt in the north to flee the country.”

 

Map of Sudan and its neighbouring countries © FRANCE 24

 

More than 14,000 Sudanese people and a further 2,000 nationals from other countries have crossed into Egypt since the conflict began, according to the country’s government.

Meanwhile, International Organisation for Migration (IOM) spokesperson Eric Mazago told AFP on Thursday that more than 3,500 people have moved southeast into Ethiopia between April 21 and 25.

A ‘race against the clock’ in Chad

Another hot spot in the Sudan conflict is the western region of Darfur, still scarred by a war that erupted in 2003. Its capital, El Geneina, has seen a surge in attacks on civilians in recent days. 

At least 20,000 people crossed into Chad during the first 10 days of fighting, according to the UNHCR, despite its government closing the border with Sudan at the start of the conflict on April 15.

The country already hosted more than 400,000 Sudanese refugees across 13 camps in local communities, who had fled the 2003 to 2010 genocide.

Border villages in Chad like Koufron, Midjiguilta and Dize Birte have seen the highest influx of displaced people. Humanitarian organisations on the ground are trying to provide emergency aid by supplying water, food, health care and temporary shelter.

We’re in “a race against the clock” said UNHCR deputy representative in Chad Jérôme Merlin, calling on the international community to help. “In two months, maybe less, the rainy season will form large rivers or ‘wadis’, which will make it very difficult to provide aid.”  

‘Premature’ returns to South Sudan

As more and more people seek sanctuary in neighbouring countries, South Sudan is also seeing the arrival of civilians feeling violence. At least 14,000 people have crossed the border, UNHCR spokesperson Shabia Mantoo told AFP on Saturday.  

“These people come from different places in Sudan. They have travelled by bus or by their own means of transport,” explains Faith Kasina, a UNHCR representative based in Nairobi who is coordinating the humanitarian response. “They have decided to go back to their home country because they have family there, even though most have left for security reasons,” she says.

Since 2013, South Sudan has been caught in a civil war between President Salva Kiir’s government and a rebellion led by former vice president Riek Machar.

In a statement released on April 26, head of the UNCHR Filippo Grandi expressed his worry that South Sudanese refugees “have been forced to prematurely return home to deep uncertainty”.

“Just a few kilometres away”

As Sudan enters a third week locked in deadly conflict, the long-simmering power struggle between the country’s army and paramilitary RSF group carries on. The rival forces accuse each other of violating the latest ceasefire, mediated by the United States, Saudi Arabia, the African Union and the United Nations on Thursday.    

“There are two distinct situations taking place in Khartoum and El Geneina in Darfur that are preventing Sudanese people from fleeing,” says Claire Nicolet, who leads the Sudan operations for Doctors Without Borders. “It’s very difficult to leave Khartoum, but once outside, the situation gets easier. In Darfur’s capital El Geneina, however, the roads around the city are dangerous. It takes about an hour to get to the border of Sudan from El Geneina, but right now it’s an impossible journey to make.”

The UNHCR team stationed along the Chad border made similar observations, and had expected a much larger influx of refugees to arrive.  

“The majority of Sudanese people who have reached Chad so far came from villages close to the border, just a few kilometres away,” says UNHCR representative Merlin. If there is a lull in the fighting, “we expect a bigger wave of arrivals”, he explains.

Faced with a bloody crisis in the making, the African Union on Thursday called on Sudan’s neighbours and international partners to “facilitate the transit” of civilians fleeing the violence “without hindrance”.

*Name has been changed upon request

This article was translated from the original in French. 

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By not tackling Ukraine war’s effects, we’re risking further disaster

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The opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not represent in any way the editorial position of Euronews.

A year since the start of the full-scale war in Ukraine, the conflict continues to take a devastating toll on people inside the country and those forced to flee. 

However, its ripple effects are also being felt far beyond Europe’s borders. Across the globe, populations continue to be deeply impacted by the disruption of global supply chains, skyrocketing energy prices, and soaring levels of inflation.

This dangerous brew is compounding the effects of conflict, climate change and economic turmoil, which have already tipped vast parts of the globe into a humanitarian crisis. 

And, as ever, the world’s most vulnerable are being hit hardest. 

Everyone everywhere is paying the price of war in Europe

As the full-scale war in Ukraine enters its second year, it is critical that the international community acknowledges the sheer scale of this humanitarian emergency — they have a moral imperative to do so, as well as a geopolitical interest. 

Populations across the globe are paying a heavy price for this war in Europe, while the complex and often protracted crises in their own countries are too often forgotten.

Today, the World Bank says a startling 94% of low-income countries globally are facing soaring levels of inflation, fueled in part by the impact of the war in Ukraine on food and fuel prices. 

According to the IRC’s Emergency Watchlist, which highlights the 20 countries most at risk of worsening humanitarian crises in 2023, food prices have increased by almost 40% over the past year. 

Even when food is available in markets, people can often not afford to put food on the table for their families.

This inflation is fueling a global food crisis of unprecedented proportions. Today a record 349 million people across 79 countries are estimated to be experiencing acute food insecurity, according to the World Food Programme, as famine looms across parts of East Africa.

Poorer countries hit the hardest

Meanwhile, the shockwaves across global energy markets are being felt most acutely by lower and middle-income countries — many of which are yet to recover from the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic. 

According to the International Energy Agency, some 70 million people worldwide who recently gained access to electricity can no longer afford it, with many returning to coal and firewood to heat their homes.

The ripple effects of the war in Ukraine are shining the spotlight on the fragilities of the international community’s systems to prevent humanitarian crises from spiralling out of control. 

However, they also provide us with some examples of how we can begin to strengthen them. 

For example, the Black Sea Grain Initiative was a much-needed step towards restarting shipments of Ukrainian grain to people in hunger-affected countries.

However, a closer analysis of this mechanism shows that — so far — just 10% of the grain exported through this initiative has been delivered to just five low-income countries: Afghanistan, Ethiopia, Somalia, Sudan and Yemen. 

In fact, Spain has received twice as much as these five countries put together. 

At this juncture, it is vital that the Black Sea Grain Initiative is maintained and adapted to ensure that grain reaches the people who need it most, including the countries most at risk of famine.

We have to break the vicious cycle of global crises

Similarly, the initial response from Europe and the broader international community to protect and support people forced to flee Ukraine has been impressive. 

It proves that they are able to welcome people with dignity and respect when there is the political will to do so. 

They must now continue to support people forced from Ukraine for as long as necessary while applying a similar approach rooted in solidarity and responsibility-sharing to the millions of others displaced from similarly harrowing situations across the globe.

These swift responses can provide a blueprint for what can and must be done to break the vicious cycle of global crises we’re witnessing today. 

First and foremost, global leaders must step up to fix the international community’s response to the hunger crisis. 

While food insecurity is undoubtedly a complex challenge, mass deaths caused by famine and untreated malnutrition are preventable. Solutions exist, but the international community is not using them effectively. 

Urgent steps must be taken to reboot the global response to extreme hunger by both re-energising the Secretary-General’s High-Level Task Force on Preventing Famine and by adopting a simplified protocol to ensure that malnutrition treatment is available to all those who need it.

Civilians in dire need of protection

Secondly, climate change is rapidly accelerating humanitarian emergencies. It’s destroying agriculture and livelihoods, worsening cyclical drought, and eroding coping mechanisms. 

In order to mitigate these crises, it will be vital to better map climate risks in humanitarian settings, as well as identify innovative solutions such as climate-resilient agriculture to ensure rural communities are prepared to face future recurring shocks.

Thirdly, the international community must scale up its commitments to protect civilians in conflict. The war in Ukraine is a stark illustration of the high price paid by civilians when International Humanitarian Law is violated with impunity. 

The most severe abuse of civilians requires actions that transcend politics and polarisation. 

Just as France has been demanding, the permanent members of the UN Security Council should suspend their veto power in cases of mass atrocities.

Lastly, humanitarian aid must be delivered through a people-first strategy, in coordination with NGOs and local civil society, to ensure that it can swiftly and effectively reach people in hard-to-reach areas such as on the frontlines of conflict.

We can’t just stand by and watch

The international community cannot stand witness as the world’s most severe humanitarian crises spiral further out of control. 

Even at a time when a great deal of focus and means are rightly directed at supporting Ukraine, the international community must prioritise concrete action to break the vicious cycle of drought, hunger and famine in other parts of the world. 

If it fails to do so, we will be faced with the same dismal outlook — or worse — a year from now. 

There will be an even greater divide between the West and the Global South, with the most vulnerable bearing the brunt.

_Harlem Désir is the International Rescue Committee’s Senior Vice-President, Europe. Previously, he was the founder and president of SOS Racisme, a Member of the European Parliament, the French Secretary of State for European Affairs and OSCE Representative on Freedom of the Media.
_

_At Euronews, we believe all views matter. Contact us at [email protected] to send pitches or submissions and be part of the conversation.
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French teachers open up about integrating Ukrainian students into the school system

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Since Russia began its invasion of Ukraine on February 24 last year, thousands of Ukrainian refugees have enrolled in the French school system. As they adapt to their new daily routine, their teachers look back at how the integration process went.

On her first day of school, Yulia cried rivers. It was the March 28, 2022, a little over a month since her home country Ukraine was invaded by Russia. Squeezing her mother’s hand tightly, it took Yulia’s teacher Marie-Laure* several attempts to peel her away and bring her through the doors of her new primary school thousands of kilometres from home, in an eastern Parisian suburb.

Slightly reassured that her mother would come see her at lunchtime, the 9-year-old hesitantly took a seat and put down her school bag. Marie-Laure introduced her to her classmates and Yulia seemed to relax, but only for a short while. The reality that this was her new life, that these were her new peers and that she wouldn’t be spending 24/7 with her mum quickly began to sink in. Yulia welled up, again. 

“She would scream, cry and beg me to call her mum,” says Marie-Laure, who has been working as a specialised teacher in Seine-Saint-Denis for five years. Although it was a difficult time, she understood Yulia’s anxiety. “You suddenly find yourself in a setting where nobody speaks your language or understands you. That’s bound to bring on a lot of fear and frustration. Add to that being uprooted from your country, which is at war… Well, it mustn’t be easy.” 

*Name has been changed to maintain confidentiality

Back to school

Since the war in Ukraine began on February 24, 2022, France has enrolled 17,677 Ukrainian students like Yulia in its primary, secondary and high schools. Most of them have joined classrooms in the Ile-de-France region, which is home to three local education authorities: Paris, Versailles and Créteil. 

Ukrainian refugee pupils have been placed in schools with special UPE2A units, programmes designed to accommodate foreign children who don’t speak French. Led by teachers like Marie-Laure, these classes help newcomers ease into the French school system gradually, giving them time to familiarise themselves with the language and their classmates. 

Over the course of a year, UPE2A students take 21 hours of traditional classes like French, maths, history, English and geography. After the first month, they are allowed to join their francophone peers in sessions that don’t require a school bag (“classes sans cartable”), like P.E., music, or arts and crafts. If by the end of the first year they have reached a high enough level to enter the French school system, they are integrated into a francophone classroom. If not, they can continue the UPE2A programme for one more year. In other words, non-French speakers have two years to catch up.

>> Paris schools prepare to take in refugee children from Ukraine

“It’s essential that the student is integrated into the French school system after those two years,” says Nicolas Monteil, a UPE2A teacher at the Blanc-Mesnil secondary school, northeast of Paris. “Especially when secondary school ends, because that’s when students make their [high school] course choices,” he says. 

In France, students can choose to attend three types of high schools: lycée général (academic training), lycée technique (arts, applied sciences or technical training) or lycée professionnel (vocational training). 

A bumpy start

“UPE2A teachers only meet their new students once all the procedures have been completed,” says Fatima Messaoudi, a school mediator who works at the academic centre (CASNAV) in Paris where newly arrived “allophone” students take their entrance exams.

Ukrainian families, like any other refugee family in France, have many hoops to jump through before they can enrol their children in the school system. “They are obliged to meet with a social worker, find housing, translate documents, find a job and then sign their children up for their placement tests,” says Messaoudi. “It can be a lengthy process.” 

Luckily for Yulia and her family, things moved quite rapidly, and she was enrolled in Marie-Laure’s class only one month after setting foot in Paris. The 9-year-old’s father had already been living in France for 10 years so could help with translations and navigating the country’s labyrinthine bureaucracy. Still, integrating into a new primary school was difficult for Yulia. 

“I spent hours making sure both Yulia and her family felt at ease, but the panic attacks and crying fits didn’t stop,” says Marie-Laure. With the consent of her parents, Marie-Laure eventually escalated the child’s distress to the school director, who agreed that psychological support was the best course of action for little Yulia.

In April 2022, “the director contacted a special number set up by the French government for Ukrainians, but it was too early,” says Marie-Laure. “The phone number didn’t work, it was an empty shell.” 

A few kilometres west in a suburb northeast of Paris, Nicolas Monteil tells of his experience welcoming three Ukrainian boys into his classroom. He has been working as a UPE2A specialised French teacher in Blanc-Mesnil for six years. 

“Ivan, Volodymyr and Arthur all arrived at different times,” he says. The two older boys Volodymyr, 12, and Arthur, 13, joined his class in February and September 2022. Ivan, the youngest who is 11, only started two weeks ago despite having arrived in France last year. 

Monteil acknowledges that it takes time to get settled, but says the administrative system is also to blame. “Some students arrive in France and wait six months to be enrolled in a school,” he says. “That’s because there aren’t enough UPE2A units for the amount of requests that come in, especially in Seine-Saint-Denis. It’s one of the poorest departments in France, with a high population of non-French speakers, so we’re under a lot of pressure.” 

As a result, Monteil never has a full classroom at the start of the school year in September, and his students all have different levels in French. While Volodymyr is getting along well, he has difficulties with pronunciation. Arthur, on the other hand, is “very comfortable” in the classroom and “stops making an effort when he thinks he has understood something”, his teacher says. And as for Ivan the newcomer, he has trouble writing. 

The boys’ fathers, unlike Yulia’s, all stayed behind to fight the war in Ukraine. With no one to help translate, Monteil had to improvise strategies to introduce his students and their families to the school. “There’s always another student or a family friend that can help out,” he says, “But you can also count on the pupils themselves. They’re very intelligent, they’ll find ways to understand, and be understood.” 

The French government doesn’t provide schools with allocated translators, so teachers are often left to their own devices when welcoming non-francophone students in their classrooms. 

Challenges, victories and differential treatment

“After about two weeks, Yulia began to feel at ease,” Marie-Laure says, letting out a sigh of relief. Along with the homeroom teacher who would eventually become Yulia’s main point of reference, Marie-Laure worked hard to ensure she was surrounded by as many familiar faces as possible. “We worked as a team and made sure she was getting the attention she needed”. 

Just two months after her arrival, Yulia took part in a theatrical production the students put on for their families at the end of the school year in June. “She was playing the clown, expressing herself fully, laughing… It was beautiful to see,” says Marie-Laure, beaming with pride. Being trilingual in Russian, Ukrainian and Romanian before arriving in Paris helped little Yulia pick up the French language quite quickly. 

It’s been less than a year since she started school and Yulia is almost fully integrated. Now Marie-Laure only teaches her for one and a half hours a day, a massive improvement from last year. “She’s excelled so quickly, her level is even higher than some of her peers who have been with me for a long time,” says her teacher. “Being trilingual helps, I guess!” 

Volodymr, Ivan and Arthur have all made improvements since they arrived too, Nicolas Monteil smiles. “There are Moldovan students who speak Russian and one Russian student. The boys also speak Russian, which allows them all to communicate,” he says, “I was slightly concerned about the Russian student coming in, but they all became friends right away. That’s what’s great about kids. The context of war doesn’t stop them from building relationships.” 

Monteil has organised an end-of-year project focussed on cinema, where he asks his students to make short films that mimic a specific style in film history. “As soon as we started working with the cameras, recording interviews, Volodymyr lit up,” he says, citing this moment as a victory. “It’s always a joy to see a student open up. It’s these small things that make all the difference as a teacher.” 

Although Monteil and Marie-Laure have had different experiences in welcoming their Ukrainian students, they both share a frustration at the differential treatment these students received after fleeing their home countries. When the war broke out, the French government published an online pamphlet for teachers, created a special school reception plan for Ukrainian refugees and opened up an academic hotline (that is now fully functioning). 

“I never had any support for the reception of my other students,” says Marie-Laure. “It’s great for Ukrainians. I’m really glad that all of that help was available, but some kids have parents who were almost killed, who come from countries like Afghanistan or Bangladesh where there are serious conflicts. There’s a sense of injustice, and that reaches beyond the school system,” she says. 

“It was the first time we were prepared to receive new pupils,” says Monteil. “We received documents explaining Ukrainian culture, characteristics of the language, all kinds of things. That doesn’t necessarily happen with other nationalities.” 

“It’s abhorrent,” says Marie-Laure. But for her, the priority will always be her students. Seeing Yulia excited to attend school without any tears in her eyes is a victory in itself. 

In France, all children between 3 and 16 are guaranteed an education by law, regardless of their status or nationality. 

According to UNICEF, there were an estimated 650,000 Ukrainian children living as refugees in 12 host countries still not enrolled in the local school system. 

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West must move faster to prevent a catastrophe in northern Syria

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Jamie Dettmer is opinion editor at POLITICO Europe.

On the “treacherous night” of the deadly earthquake that shook northern Syria, Idris Nassan, a Kurdish official living in Raqqa, was startled awake as his apartment swayed.

“My body was trembling, noise filled the place; the building turned into a swing, leaning left and right,” he said.

With his wife and mother in tow, Nassan scrambled down three flights of stairs, joining neighbors who, “like birds fleeing snakes of prey,” made their chaotic exit. The stairwell echoed with the cries and screams of terrified children.

The scenes outside were “beyond endurance,” Nassan said — telling, coming from a man who witnessed the siege of Kobani and the vicious battles between Kurds and the Islamic State militants there. But, he added, the “pain of the earthquake has been “deepened by the failure of others to help.”

Of all the places to be tested by the grinding of tectonic plates, this is one that just didn’t need to suffer more pain and grief.

The Syrians of Idlib and northern Aleppo, many displaced from elsewhere in the war-ravaged country, have endured barbaric conflict, a gruesome descent into hell, for over a decade. They’ve suffered barrel bombs; their hospitals and markets have been targeted; they’ve been starved; and they’ve been preyed upon by the jihadists of Al Qaeda and the Islamic State. Idlib was turned into a large “kill zone” by the Syrian regime of Bashar Assad and his Russian and Iranian backers, as rebels and their families were funneled into the area, corralled like cattle awaiting slaughter.

Adding insult to injury, since 2018, Turkish authorities have been deterring Syrian asylum seekers from crossing the border and declining to register them. Turkey has also mounted unlawful deportations and coerced some to return to northern Syria, while the European Union — fearful of another migration surge — has raised few objections to this breach of the Geneva Convention.

Along the arc of northern Syria, the widespread complaint by Arabs and Kurds alike is that since the defeat of the Islamic State, they’ve been abandoned by the international community. That sense of desertion is now being compounded as they dig mass graves and grapple with the effects of a devastating earthquake.

Since the deadly 7.8-magnitude earthquake flattened towns, destroyed homes and crushed thousands of lives on February 6, the world’s focus has mainly been on Turkey — that’s where Western media and international rescue crews, aid and equipment have been heading.

But across the border, there’s been scant assistance.

Sent into rebel-held Idlib, a member of Mercy Corps, a global humanitarian organization, said, “What sticks in my mind is that some people were standing above the rubble and hearing the voices of their families and relatives a few meters away, but they could not do anything to rescue them due to the lack of equipment and the absence of an international response to help.”

Predictably, Moscow and Beijing haven’t been lagging in their efforts to try to spin the events in Syria. “The sanctions imposed by the US and its allies are hampering relief and rescue work . . . such a humanitarian disaster is not enough to melt the cold-blooded heart of the US,” goaded the Global Times, the English-language mouthpiece of the Chinese Communist Party.

Meanwhile, Russia’s Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova accused the “collective West” of ignoring what’s taking place in northern Syria, blaming the economic sanctions against the Assad government for prolonging suffering.

Of course, these are crocodile tears coming from a Chinese Communist government that’s incarcerated over a million Uyghurs since 2015. It’s also strikingly indecent of Russia to claim sympathy for the north of Syria, where it shunned the laws of war and rehearsed the bombing campaigns and egregious tactics it’s now using in Ukraine.

Nonetheless, one doesn’t have to be a Russian or Chinese propagandist to question the West’s sluggishness in anticipating the scale of the humanitarian crisis unfolding in northern Syria, or in developing an action plan to ease the suffering in Idlib and northern Aleppo.

Last week, EU officials slammed the complaints of neglect coming from northern Syria. “I categorically reject the accusations that EU sanctions may have any impact on humanitarian aid. These sanctions were imposed since 2011 in response to the violent repression of the Syrian regime against its own civilian population, including the use of chemical weapons,” European Commissioner for Crisis Management Janez Lenarčič told reporters. “There is nothing there that would hamper the delivery of humanitarian aid and emergency assistance, especially not in the situation in which Syrian people find themselves after this terrible earthquake,” he added.

The EU says it’ll provide additional emergency support to both Turkey and Syria, and emergency humanitarian assistance worth €6.5 million. But officials say the bloc will also require safeguards to ensure aid effectively reaches those in need and isn’t misused by the Assad government — something that’s plagued humanitarian assistance in the past.

Indeed, funneling aid into northern Syria is fraught with logistical and political nightmares. Idlib is controlled by a variety of feuding rebel groups, with a large part held by Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), an Islamist militant group that’s been designated as a terrorist organization by the U.S. and, much like the Assad government, has been accused of manipulating international aid.

Additionally, of the five border crossings from Turkey into northern Syria, only one has been authorized by Turkish authorities to handle humanitarian aid — although Ankara has now said it’s considering reopening more crossings to allow aid into both opposition-held and Assad-controlled areas.

But time is of the essence, and the scale of the crisis unfolding requires a momentous step change.

Mercy Corps reports that there aren’t enough structural engineers in northern Syria to inspect buildings, and even small aftershocks risk further collapse. There’s also very little coordination on the ground, with extremely limited information available on shelter options for survivors.

Fuel for heating and cooking is becoming a major challenge as well. “There is limited availability, and what is available is of poor quality and very expensive. People are burning trash to stay warm, and aid deliveries will be dependent on consistent access to fuel for trucks,” said Mercy Corps. Meanwhile, food is hard to procure, prices are skyrocketing, and access to clean drinking water is becoming a critical problem, with assessment teams worried about pollutants leaking into water sources.

On Friday, the United Nations warned that over 5 million Syrians may be left homeless after the earthquake. “That is a huge number and comes to a population already suffering mass displacement,” said Sivanka Dhanapala, the Syria representative of the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees.

Thankfully, in the past few days, 20 U.N. aid trucks have crossed into rebel-held areas, but most were carrying pre-planned provisions that had been delayed due to the earthquake. And on Friday, the U.N. announced it was releasing an additional $25 million in emergency funding for Syria, bringing the total to $50 million so far.

However, NGO assessment workers say this is far short of what’s needed — and they argue that Western powers will have to rethink the sanctions regime.

While humanitarian aid isn’t barred by Western sanctions, there are plenty of other things desperately needed in northern Syria that are, including fuel and construction equipment critical to rescue efforts, to prop up battered buildings and to rebuild, so the displaced aren’t left to shelter in tents.

The United States has moved faster than the EU in recognizing that sanctions risk impeding quake assistance, issuing a six-month waiver for all transactions related to providing disaster relief to Syria.

 Navigating the political dilemmas all this will bring — getting in front of Assad exploiting the earthquake to force a normalization of relations, getting Turkey to coordinate with the Kurds of northern Syria, and dealing with HTS and the other feuding rebel groups — is undoubtedly going to be a tall order.

Aside from the imperatives of compassion, a slow and inadequate Western response will also feed into African and Middle Eastern countries’ perception — kindled by Moscow and Beijing — that Western powers only pay attention to them when they want or need something.

And if these challenges aren’t confronted, the immediate humanitarian crisis risks turning into a catastrophe.



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‘We will be in danger if Russia wins’: Security concerns drive Poland’s support for Ukraine

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The war in Ukraine has conferred a new importance to the Baltic States and the countries of Central and Eastern Europe geographically closest to Russia – particularly Poland. Warsaw is determined to learn from Poland’s own history and help Ukraine win the war.  

Since Russia invaded Ukraine on February 24, 2022, Poland has been living with the consequences: 8 million Ukrainians have crossed the border into Polish territory since last February and the majority of NATO assistance is delivered through Poland, which shares a 535-kilometre-long border with Ukraine. With the prospect of a new Russian spring offensive in Ukraine on everyone’s mind, Poland is acting as if it is preparing for a war.  

If Poland’s support for Ukraine has been seemingly limitless, it comes from a deeply rooted belief that if Russia is not defeated, Poland itself will become a target. Security concerns have led Poland to modernize its army and boost its defence spending to up to 4 percent of its GDP this year, the highest percentage among all NATO countries, according to Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki.  

“If we don’t support Ukraine now, there will be new targets for [Vladimir] Putin,” said Paweł Jabłoński, the Polish deputy minister for foreign affairs. “A Russian politician recently suggested that Russia should ‘denazify’ six more countries after Ukraine, including Poland. What we do now, we do out of solidarity and in support of the victims.”  

“The opinion throughout Polish society is that if Russia succeeds in Ukraine by claiming territory, whether in Kherson or Zaporizhzhia, there will be the next war, and another after that…,” said Łukasz Jankowski, a political journalist who covers the Polish Parliament. “The feeling is that our basic safety and our independence will be in danger if Russia wins.”  

The threat from Belarus  

Another fear is that Russian troops would combine the territories wrested away from Ukraine and “create a government like the one in Minsk”, said Jankowski. Following the break-up of the Soviet Union, an international treaty between Russia and Belarus signed in 1997 by Russian President Boris Yeltsin and Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko created the basis for a union between the two former Soviet republics. Both countries maintained their independence but Lukashenko has always supported Russia’s military initiatives without directly taking part in them.  

Should the war in Ukraine drag on, some in Eastern Europe fear Russia could eventually aim for the Baltic States. “This war is not over the territory of Ukraine but over the independence of Eastern Europe. That is why we must support Ukraine and there should not be any limits to this help,” said Jankowski.  

Poland’s support for Ukraine has been especially forthcoming when it comes to the country’s humanitarian response. Poland began to see increasing numbers of Ukrainians in 2014, the year the conflict effectively started with Russia’s takeover of Crimea. “We opted for a very simple way of permitting them to work,” said Jabłoński.  

Following the Russian invasion last year, a massive influx of 8 million refugees crossed the border into Poland, though many eventually went on to Romania and Moldova while others returned home. Recent arrivals have brought the total number of Ukrainians living in Poland to 3.37 million people. “In every Polish city, you can meet someone from Ukraine. There was never any ghettoization. Their integration was virtually seamless and today Ukrainians make up 8 percent of the total population in Poland,” said Jabłoński.   

A shared history not without dark episodes  

“Many Poles who take Ukrainian refugees into their homes see Ukraine as a very new nation, and they consider the relationship between Poland and Ukraine as a brotherhood,” said Jankowski. The history between the two countries is not without dark episodes. During the Second World War, Poles were the victims of ethnic cleansing by Ukrainian nationalists, while Poles forcibly deported thousands of Ukrainians. Decades later, former Polish president Aleksander Kwaśniewski and his Ukrainian counterpart Leonid Koutchma led a historic and formal Polish-Ukrainian reconciliation beginning in 1995.  

The strong bond between the two countries comes from similar languages and a shared history. In 1997, Ukraine and Poland had a no-visa regime. The experience of Ukrainians in a large, Slavic country with functioning public institutions and a free market helped drive calls for reform in Ukraine, wrote the historian Timothy Snyder in his book “The Construction of Nations”. At the turn of the century, Poland resisted pressure from the European Union to end its visa-free regime with Ukraine, asserting its right to fulfill its obligations once its adhesion to the EU became official. Once Poland joined the EU, its special arrangements with Ukraine came to an end.

While Poland has set a model in terms of welcoming refugees from Ukraine, its hospitality towards refugees from other countries has been debatable. A report from Amnesty International detailed Poland’s “selective solidarity” of welcoming Ukrainians fleeing the war and refusing entry to other refugees, principally from Syria, Iraq or Afghanistan, who were attempting to enter Poland through the border with Belarus. 

Is there an element of self-interest in Poland’s extensive help to Ukraine? Polish Vice-Minister for Foreign Affairs Jabłoński wrote off the idea, claiming instead that the number one priority was to defend Ukraine and Central European states from a resurgent Russia. “In 2021, Russia demanded NATO to withdraw from Central Europe. If our international position grows while we are helping Ukraine win the war, we would be glad,” he explained.

“If Germany had taken a stronger position for Ukraine, we wouldn’t have had to take on this role. I wish we didn’t have to take on this role,” said Jabłoński, while citing the power imbalance between Central Europe and Western Europe, whose citizens often have the top leadership positions in European institutions.    

‘We want to strengthen NATO and be a driving force within it’ 

An opportunity for developing Central Europe’s role would be through a future Polish-Ukrainian Treaty, which could be signed in the upcoming weeks or months. Comparing it to the Élysée Treaty between France and Germany, Jabłoński said it would be a wide security, cultural and economic agreement. The treaty would “certainly not” be an alternative to NATO. “We want to strengthen NATO and be a driving force within it,” said the deputy foreign minister.  

When it comes to integrating Ukraine into the European Union, Polish leaders and observers are under no illusion. “We know corruption exists within the Ukrainian administration, but Poland [which joined the European Union in 2004] can help with its know-how,” said Jankowski.  

With the enlargement of the EU, citizens from Russia, Belarus and Ukraine found themselves materially and symbolically separated from “Europe”, according to Snyder, who noted that the hard border may have been helpful to authoritarian rulers like Lukashenko. By helping Ukraine, Poland is considering “lessons that were repeated in the past”, said Jabłoński, “because otherwise we could be victims again”.  

 

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