Article written by Maíra Figueredo Gomes and Marina Wohlers Ariboni
Since the beginning of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, that occurred on the day 24 February 2022, is estimated by UNHCR (UN Refugee Agency) what 3,5 millions of people migrated from their country of origin to other countries in Europe. Among them, more of 2 million people would have moved to Poland, specifically. The migratory crisis resulting from the war is getting bigger every day, and according to the UN migration agency, almost 6,5 million people were displaced to other regions of Ukraine.
Ylva Johansson, EU migration chief said that the economic bloc is prepared in numerous ways to receive refugees, as they learned to deal with this issue during the migration crisis in 2015. “The situation is now totally different and the point is that we are much better prepared”, these Johansson, in an interview with Lusa about the situation in Ukrainian territory. according to her, the EU “started with a contingency plan weeks before this happened, contacting both agencies (European Border and Coast Guard Agency and the European Union Agency for Asylum) and asking Member States for data”. Besides that, stated that compared to 2015, the war in syria started in 2011 and Europe started to react when the refugees were already on European territory, different from what is currently happening.
According to data collected from UNHCR, in 2014, the arrival of migrants in Europe totaled 280 one thousand, a high of 10,3% compared to the previous year. More of 170 thousand people/immigrants went to the Italian coast and 43.500 to the greek coast. In 2015, there were more than a million migrants. In the same year, the International Organization for Migration (OIM) esteemed in 1.047.000 arrivals by sea to Europe. *
At the end of the summer of 2015, when thousands of refugees fled conflict in the Middle East, Chancellor Angela Merkel decided to open the doors of Germany, causing a large scale of asylum claims and reaching
1,26 million in the EU. acting. For having acted unilaterally in providing refuge, was criticized by many of its European partners.
The European Commission guarantees that the European Union is more carefully prepared to deal with the migratory flow caused by the war in Ukraine, compared to the 2015 migration crisis.
It can be concluded that the current migratory flow in Europe, mainly a consequence of the war between Ukraine and Russia, is being considerably superior due to its preparation, compared to the migratory crisis that occurred in 2015, since the European continent has already gone through a similar situation. However, when talking about data, this picture is the opposite. According to the UN, in less than a week of war, the escape of the Ukrainians was at least 10 times greater than the record number of people who migrated to Europe during the crisis in 2015.
References:
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TRALLA, Johannes. EU commissioner: Europe has no new plans for refugee redistribution quotas. Err News. 22 March 2022. Available in:<https://news.err.ee/1608540127/eu-commissioner-europe-has-no-new-plans-for-refugee-redistribution-quotas>. Access in: 01 April 2022.
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