The refugee crisis and Ukraine<\/h2>\n
Despite the <\/span>tears shed by the Bangladeshi prime minister<\/span><\/a> last month in New York when she was talking about the Rohingya\u00b4s hardship, her country could definitely do more for the refugees it harbors. It\u2019s also true that the Rohingya refugees are a burden on Bangladesh, which can barely face its own political, social and climate challenges.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n
The European Union (EU) countries are rich and signatories of the UN Refugee Convention and Protocol. Surely, they do welcome refugees for legal and ethical imperatives. Or do they? In 2015, the EU went through the so-called \u201c<\/span>migrant crisis<\/span><\/a>\u201d because of the rejection fed by far-right groups against the refugees and migrants coming from Syria and other countries.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n
Was perhaps the rejection influenced by the economic crisis that Europeans were suffering? Well, after Russia attacked Ukraine last February, many European countries and their citizens welcomed Ukrainian refugees with open arms. This is happening when their economies and health systems are barely recovering from the catastrophic Covid-19 pandemic.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n
Afghan and Syrian refugees are received with suspicion or blunt rejection, but the situation is quite different with Ukrainians. Perhaps because, as the Ukrainian deputy chief prosecutor David Sakvarelidze said to the BBC, the people being killed in Ukraine have \u201c<\/span>blue eyes and blonde hair.<\/span><\/a>\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n
Media representation has a lot to do with the way people see Ukrainian refugees versus refugees from the Middle East or Africa. As the South African comedian Trevor Noah said about the biased and even racist coverage by some Western journalists: \u201cBut I was shocked to see how many reporters -around the world, by the way- seem to think that it’s more of a tragedy when white people have to flee their countries.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n
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El humorista sudafricano Trevor Noah sobre el racismo y la superioridad moral de analistas y periodistas europeos al hablar de Ucrania y sus refugiados blancos. Bromas que son pu\u00f1etazos. Con raz\u00f3n. pic.twitter.com\/hn9SjeWq6J<\/a><\/p>\n
— Xavier Aldekoa (@xavieraldekoa) March 4, 2022<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n