The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees has said that 4 million migrants might leave Ukraine within weeks. A real challenge for Europe, but also for Belgium where the federal government has specified the framework for the reception of these refugees. At home, solidarity has already been shown and some 300 Belgian families have already declared that they are available to welcome migrants.
But is Europe strong enough in the face of this fairly large migratory flow? “Europe will have to do what is necessary” assure Sammy Mahdi. “We are faced with a country which is on the European border where there are bombs falling every day. These people who leave their country, this first step they take is immediately in the European Union. We must therefore take the necessary at the diplomatic level, at the military level but also at the level of the reception. The question of ‘if we are going to do it’ does not arise, it must be done.
But how are we going to do it? “What we are going to try to adopt later is quite historic” specifies our guest, before detailing. “There is the possibility of having automatic temporary protection which is given to Ukrainians, that is to say that they do not go through the asylum procedure while waiting to find out whether they can stay or not. It’s temporary protection for one year, renewable twice, so up to two years in total. Why has this measure never been adopted before? It’s because it was created following the wars in the former Yugoslavia, for countries on the European border because people confronted with such conflicts, when they flee, the first country they arrive in is necessarily the European Union. there is a major asylum crisis, so direct protection must be provided.”
When asked if it is not a “double standard”, the Secretary of State for Asylum and Migration refutes. “It is certainly an exception, as for example Turkey made in 2015 for Syria because the countries are bordering. But if not for all the other asylum seekers who enter the European Union, there are asylum procedures that exist and we check whether the person really needs international protection or not. And in relation to that, things are done. For me, therefore, it is not a double standard. Belgium, we have in our reception network more than 31,000 places and asylum seekers who enter the procedures and who have to wait to find out whether they can stay or not, because we have to check whether they really have a need for international protection or not.”
“Today’s wave is bigger than that of 2015”
Pour Sammy Mahdi, “Today’s wave is bigger than that of 2015” which Europe had at the time had great difficulty in managing.
For him, this new crisis is therefore a real “test for Europe” . “In 2015, there were 1.3 million refugees in European territories over the space of a year. Here, in one week of this crisis, we have already reached one million refugees. That gives us an idea of the scale of this humanitarian crisis and the fact that it is important to coordinate things well at European level. This is why the Council at European level this Thursday, where I will be representing Belgium, will be so important. To first try to have this directive adopted, but above all to demonstrate that we finally have a European migration policy” he concludes.