Changing Contours of Dealing with Refugee Crisis in EU: A Comparative Study of Ukrainian and Syrian Refugee Crisis

Abstract

Europe experienced a significant refugee crisis in two separate instances, one in 2015 and another in 2022. A substantial refugee flow has resulted from Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, making it one of the biggest in Europe since the end of World War II. Not long ago, Europe faced another humanitarian catastrophe as thousands of Syrians were compelled to escape their war-torn country and the prevailing crisis. Although both crises entailed a similar magnitude, with approximately six million people affected, the public responses exhibited differently. According to the UNHCR 2021 report, more than 5 million refugees and asylum seekers, mostly from Syria but also from Afghanistan, Iraq, and Eritrea, had entered European countries by the end of 2016. However, since the start of the Syrian conflict, barely over 1 million Syrians have been successful in obtaining international protection in the European Union. The recent activation of the temporary protection directive by the EU, which was initially adopted in 2002, has drawn significant criticism. This initiative has been criticised for exhibiting a bias towards welcoming Ukrainian refugees compared to the response seen during the Syrian refugee crisis. Therefore, it is important to understand if the EU is dealing with the refugee crisis differently. This study aims to investigate whether the European Union (EU) employed distinct approaches in its responses to the Ukrainian and Syrian refugee crises. It further examines particular examples of differential treatment and framing of refugees from Ukraine and Syria, and it compares the temporary protection and asylum processes implemented by the EU in response to the two refugee crises.

Keywords

• The European Union
• Refugee Crisis
• Laws
• Policies
• Ukrainian and Syrian Refugee Crisis

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