Our politicians are failing (Christopher Furlong/Getty Images)
Every war has a photograph that captures its horrors. Vietnam had Napalm Girl; Spain had The Falling Soldier. How will the war in Ukraine be remembered? Thanks to Vladimir Putin’s ruthlessness, an image of a heavily pregnant woman being stretchered in the rubble of a maternity hospital in Mariupol, injured and bleeding, is likely to be etched into the minds of future generations. Both mother and newborn are now dead.
Today marks three weeks since Putin launched his invasion and already thousands have been killed — perhaps significantly more, if the latest estimates from Mariupol are to be believed. There are mass graves, bodies strewn in the streets, desperate attempts to survive by melting snow for drinking water.
We have all marvelled at the Ukrainians’ bravery as they fight to defend their country and people. But the price of their heroism has been terrible suffering. Right now, the United States and its Nato allies are focused on targeting the Russian economy with sanctions, as well as sending weapons and other forms of military aid into Ukraine. Both efforts must continue. But there is also a dire need to help civilians no longer in the country — those who have decided to flee the daily barrage of missiles, bombs and bullets.
This week, the UN estimated that more than 2.8 million people have now escaped. With Ukrainian men aged between 18 and 60 required to remain and help with the war effort, most leaving are women, children, and the frail, running from the relentless shelling of their cities and villages. More are expected to leave in the coming weeks: the UN’s High Commission for Refugees has estimated that 12 million people still inside Ukraine will need help.
European countries have already taken moderate steps to accept refugees. The Schengen zone has dropped visa requirements, requiring only a biometric passport to enter. The EU has granted the right to stay and work in the EU for up to three years. But more needs to be done.
First, the West can prove its continued support of Ukraine by conducting a large-scale humanitarian airlift to save those trapped in encircled cities such as Mariupol and Kharkiv, or captured ones such as Kherson. Getting them out and to a safe country should be the top priority. We attempted this in Afghanistan last year; there’s no reason we shouldn’t do the same now.
Once these people have left, we need to ensure they can reach host countries across Europe, especially the wealthier northern European countries. For years, the European Union has constantly spoken of the importance of “burden sharing”. Now is the time for it to demonstrate it knows what the term means. As things stand, the burden on Poland — there are 1.8 million refugees there — is too great. This is a crisis for all Europe, and should be treated as such.
In 1992, after fleeing a forced marriage in Somalia, I spent 11 months living in an asylum-seeker centre in Lunteren, the Netherlands, with individuals from around the world. One group in particular stood out: those from the former Yugoslavia. Given the proximity of the conflict to the European Union, those running from the Balkan states were bussed into the centre from the border. I cannot recall another refugee group being treated this way, but it sets a clear precedent that asylum seekers escaping a European conflict should be provided with transport to reach safety.
Once there, Ukrainians deserve protection and accommodation. Those who fled in the first weeks of the conflict often had friends in foreign countries who provided them with housing. But as the scale of evacuees continue to rise, that is no longer the case. People today are desperate: a family may have a suitcase between them, but no plan for what comes next. This is where European governments need to step in.
And so far, they are failing. This week, the British government announced its Homes for Ukraine scheme, which will pay volunteers £350 a month tax-free for opening their homes to those fleeing the conflict. The response was undeniably heartening: more than 100,000 people signed up in the first day. But even with the best of intentions, such enthusiasm can’t hide the fact that the proposal is nothing more than a gimmick, designed to fill headlines rather than remedy the largest refugee crisis in Europe since the Second World War.
Ukrainians don’t need shelter, safety and accommodation next week, or the week after. They need it today. Every European country should be expediting this process. With the recent passage of the European Commission’s “Cohesion Action for Refugees in Europe” proposal, which allocates €10 billion humanitarian aid for Ukrainians, there is no reason we can’t immediately guarantee accommodation for those fleeing.
If we don’t, in the coming weeks they could be forced to substitute one type of inhumane barbarity for another. Already there are reports of trafficking gangs waiting near the border for young women and children. One man has been detained in Poland, suspected of raping a 19-year-old refugee he had ensnared with an offer of shelter. Another was heard attempting to lure in a 16-year-old girl before authorities intervened. In the UK, meanwhile, the National Crime Agency estimates that there are at least 6,000 modern slavery offenders in the country. “We can be certain that some of this number will be seeing the Homes for Ukraine scheme as an opportunity to turn a profit,” one expert has warned.
This must not be allowed to happen. Young Ukrainian women must not end up in red-light districts across Europe because they fled their homes and fell into the wrong hands. Nato and the EU may not deem it appropriate to support the Ukrainians with a no-fly zone — but surely we can protect them from being further dehumanised by opportunistic criminal syndicates. It is the least we owe them.
And then there is the need for a long-term plan. It is all very well offering citizens a wad of cash to take in refugees, but what comes next? For those entering Europe, the sooner we reintroduce them to a normal life the better. Asylum-seeker centres are often like human holding pens — they provide food, shelter and basic healthcare. But, as I discovered in the Netherlands, life as a refugee is a waiting game. Typically, refugees spend their days waiting for paperwork to be approved, waiting to be allowed to go to school, or waiting to be allowed to work.
It is cruel and dispiriting to keep any human in this condition of uncertainty — and especially so with the people fleeing Putin’s bombs. Once the Ukrainians arrive, we need to rush them into language and skill-building classes immediately. We need to help them find jobs and put their children in schools. This is the only way they will be able cope with the mental and emotional trauma that is the aftermath of the war.
But we must also start planning for their repatriation, closely tied to the swift rebuilding of Ukraine. After all, most of the refugees will want to return to their homes, if they can, as soon as possible. With the mass destruction of cities and towns, significant investments — nothing less than a new Marshall Plan — will be needed to rebuild the country.
Since the fall of the Soviet Union, the West has failed Ukraine time and again. They were persuaded, in 1994, to give up their nuclear weapons in the Budapest Memorandum on Security Assurances. They’ve been strung along for years with the promise of joining Nato and the EU. And they were left to fend for themselves when Putin started to amass tanks on their doorstep.
The only moral course for the West now is to stop making hollow promises — and to start supporting the refugees. Perhaps it is too late to save their country, but it is not too late to save them. Every day the invasion continues, Ukraine shows the West the cost of freedom and the courage needed to take on tyrants. It’s now our turn to step up and start bearing some of that cost.
Ayaan Hirsi Ali is an UnHerd columnist. She is also a research fellow at Stanford University’s Hoover Institution, Founder of the AHA Foundation, and host of The Ayaan Hirsi Ali Podcast. Her new book is Prey: Immigration, Islam, and the Erosion of Women’s Rights.
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Which, incidentally, is a long way from nothing.
Most of the world does not take migrants willingly. We do.
China does not take migrants at all. Japan does not take migrants either. Neither does…Russia. Except for propaganda purposes of course.
We do, because we are better. Thank you.
And on that note, if you want to blame anyone for 3 million refugees, blame Putin, or to that idiot nation that allowed him to ascend to power.
Seriously, a nation that routinely allows itself to be run by, absolutist imbeciles, then genocidal ideologues, then incompetent ideologues, then drunken incompetents, now a gangster whom has (gods preserve us) suddenly got religion. And got it in that predictable, uncompromising, eastern orthodox, spittle flecked manner.
Now that he’s dying (apparently.) Loser.
We are not perfect, no not at all. But we are better, so much better.
Thank you.
I agree that was my first thought after reading this article. But as for all refugees, Ukrainians included, maybe it’s better to use the money to keep them closer to there homes rather than have them traipsing all over Europe
Don’t disagree on the point about Brits being nice people, in terms of being polite and welcoming towards “outsiders.”
If anything too nice, to the extent that while the White majority are highly tolerant, they are badmouthed as being “racist” for any minor, made up “offence”
But the US / West Europe alliance does exert a lot of influence outside their own borders.
Unfortunately in terms of foreign policy and how they treat other nations, the West are far from nice. Which is why this new found, supposedly moral stance against Putin and war , to pretend the West is “so much better” is nauseating. Even now, the Yemenis are facing far worse than the Ukranians, under sustained attack from a western “ally” that is trained and armed largely by Britain – even though they share none of the values ordinary British people have.
Indeed, Samir, I think in the main if folks adhere to the rules, we tolerate much but, as with many societies, we have an evil underbelly. The Lawrences, the Oluwales et al can vouch for that.
As for the foreign policy bit, you are right – we can’t get our own borders secure so what chance interferring thousands of miles away?
You seem to forget the tens of thousands of Asian refugees taken in by Britain, immediately, from the trouble in Uganda, in the early 1970s, when Idi Amin took power.
Not really, if you ask those Ugandan refugees, they would agree that the level of tolerance and kindness shown by ordinary British people was outstanding.
But that is exactly the point: there is a huge difference in behaviour between
A. the British people (who are among the nicest I have met. Which is why, as an immigrant, I find it infuriating when the wokes use flimsy excuses to accuse them of racism)
B. How the British establishment (govt, media, civil services) act towards weaker countries.
And the former is conflated with the latter, to pretend that the Govt or foreign policy is somehow benevolent.
In my mind, destroying Iraq, supporting the horrible Saudi regime, and then pretending to be suddenly horrified by war in Ukraine (which was to a large extent instigated by the West) and attacking individual Russians for instance…
is despicable behaviour, and not the kind of mindset I would come across with ordinary citizens on the street.
Yes, you do not blame or hold anything against the British people. You blame the British regime under which the ordinary Briton has to live.
I think it’s possible some folk, who have long seen the Christian West as a permanently available crutch on which to depend, as the only crutch that acts as a safety valve for the world’s desperate and downtrodden folk (like the aforementioned poor ordinary Britons), might just be feeling a little chastened by the events in Ukraine and the sudden refugee crisis that has unfolded. The desire to be good neighbours is very little in evidence in benighted or authoritarian countries outside the West.
There was nowhere, for example, the good and the skilled from Kabul and district could, or would, settle in within a radius from Kabul of one thousand miles, when the Taliban rode into town. How often would just looking at an atlas explain everything! None of the near-neighbouring countries were appealing. These dodgy countries did not even appeal to them to come. Indeed, Singapore, Nairobi or Athens or Tel Aviv might have been the nearest cities that might have MEANT something to them, in terms of freedoms. (If you don’t count Volgograd and the rest of Russia within a thousand miles of Kabul). And for the poor, uneducated Afghans, only tent cities in one of the neighbouring countries would have been their lot. Most Afghans won’t have the means or the health or the opportunity or even the confidence to travel further beyond the borderlands of their country, I imagine. The West made a brief appearance of twenty years, but a whole wide range of people held out wild or mean expectations and the little colony of hip young Afghans hoping to establish itself was in the end scuppered.
Last July, young Afghan women protested outside the White House in Washington about the West’s seeming abandonment of the Afghans to their fate: these young women had their long hair free, the sun on their bare arms, strength in their stride. Thank God for the West! And thank God for the gallant airlift!
And now the West is doing its utmost to help Ukrainians in their millions fleeing and it still gets told off by various bodies and individuals for its devious indifference to those fleeing – I’m still trying to see this iniquitous behaviour. The iniquity I see comes from the aggressor nation attacking Ukraine. The “EU’s empty promises” as a headline may well be latched onto by Russia in their propaganda war.
The Ukraine refugee crisis makes it clearly incumbent upon the world, the great and the good in every half-decent country, to look out for their neighbours, in any way they can. To do better. If not, there might end up instability and hostility everywhere. The West cannot be expected to carry the can alone. I think folk who feel helpless in view of the current events might turn their helplessness into criticism of their own side. The downside of that is that the good guys just get even further trapped between a rock and a hard place. The West is usually damned if it does, and damned if it doesn’t.
Bangladesh may not be able to host in refugee camps the Rohingya people for long. They too want to return to their homes in Burma, I imagine. But as a persecuted people, their only true safe space, in the wider south Asian region, outside of Bangladesh, might not exist at all. They would have rights and comforts and safety in the West, however.
The Ukrainians are fighting for Western Civilisation, no less. Should not that civilisation spread around the world. Can’t let Marxism spread!
There is a difference between taking in refugees from a war in your neighbourhood or from a country thousands of miles away. There is a difference for refugees to migrate through safe countries to reach the EU or fleeing from a war in the neighbouring country of the EU. And finally: there is a difference providing shelter to fleeing women and children compared to mainly young healthy men. Maybe challenge your own racism and prejudices a bit more.
The men will follow. And that’s a good thing. Western Europe, including the UK, need more workers.
And most of the refugees will never return to live in Ukraine.
Well said, and I wonder how many of these Ukrainian refugees would welcome the collapse of Western civilization or how many of them cheered when the twin towers were leveled in NY? Just saying.
Not all refugees are equal.
A better solution to all this hand wringing is to prevent the crisis from happening in the first place. This was extremely preventable if we had just paid attention when the leader of a nuclear power says for many years that having NATO on their Western border is an existential threat and a line in the sand. Unless we show resolve in forcing Putin to live with it, which we didn’t, what did we expect would happen?
The problem appears to be that many in the west think that issues around expediency and immediate strategic interest do not apply to us. They do, always, to everybody.
The question is to what extent are we to sacrifice those interests for the sake of humanitarian considerations.
We are just more successful at it than most. And often we get it wrong. I’m the case of Afghanistan, very wrong. But that doesn’t mean it was incorrect, from a strategic point of view, to pull out. The suffering we caused by our speady exit was due to incompetence rather than malice. Unlike Putin bombing packed theatres. So much better.
As regards the Afghans not being “blond haired or blue eyed enough,” what I saw was conservative MP after conservative MP stand up in the house of commons with genuine tears in there eyes demanding more be done for the Afghans. And guess what? More was done. I can’t find any figures for Afghans given asylum, but according to the guardian “12,000 Afghan refugees remain stuck in UK hotels,” as at 7 Dec 2021. Better than being decapitated on camera by the Taliban. Like I said, much better.
Much better than the tardy treatment given to the “blonde haired and blue eyed” Ukrainian refugees. Who had to play a ridiculous game of whack-a-mole in France to find a functional visa office. Shameful. But I would blame a serially incompetent home secretary for that c**k -up rather then malice towards Ukrainians.
I’m afraid I know very little about the independence, partition and subsequent civil wars in the post independence Indian sub-continent. So I will just have to agree with you and say that we behaved appallingly.
A better example might be the current brutal civil war in Yemen. I’m which the Saudis are currently engaged in war crimes, much like Putin. War crimes that we are trying to ignore. In fact Boris is toadying up to King Salman as we speak. But that particular murderous autocrat is a long way away and he has oil that we need. Unlike the murderous autocrat in Russia who is very, very close and has nuclear weapons.
Do you think that the Poles give a damn about Yemen (or Pakistan) right now? The Palestinian refugee crisis of ’68-’73 destroyed the Lebanese state and almost broke Jordan too. 3 million hungry, traumatised Ukrainians could do for Poland as well. Food riots are particularly ugly.
We need to stay focused on our strategic self interest, which is to keep Poland in one piece and facing in the right direction. Forget about Yemen for now. Ditto Germany, which, believe it or not does not have an army that is if much use. We need to cover for them until they get their act together. A quick glance at a map of Europe will tell you how important this is.
All of this is much more important than, as the article suggests, airlifting people out of Mariupol. I’m not sure what planet Ayaan Hirsi Ali is on but the preservation of Poland as a functioning state has to be our priority. Events in Ukraine are an existential crisis for anyone living to the West of Dnieper river.
Anyway I’ve run out of puff for now. This online debate malarkey is exhausting. Who has the time?
We treat Ukrainian refugees better the same way Arabs treat Palestinian refugees better
Well said. And it needs saying to all the self-haters in the West until it finally sinks in.
First of all Russia is taking many thousands refugees as we write, they are the Russian speaking Ukrainians that suffer as much as their Ukrainian speaking cousins.
As for “blaming” someone for refugees I’m afraid that’s not the case as most European countries are looking forward to as many workers as possible.
And yes, the fact they most are blue eyed and blond haired plays a very important role it would be hypocritical to deny it. Most of them are young and eager to thrive in the W society and easy to assisimilate.
“Easy to assimilate”. Excellent point. I doubt many of the new Ukrainians will demand their own “no go” neighborhoods in their host country. They will likely learn the new language too.
Thanks L Boer for relying.
Russia is indeed taking many thousands of refugees, but I debate the need to create the refugees in the first place, and Russia’s motives for doing so. Second I am curious as to how their refugee experience compares to those in Poland. Russia has a appalling human rights record, I’m worried for their welfare, Russian speakers or not.
Your second paragraph does not make sense. I don’t know if there is a labour shortage in Poland, but I’m sure the Poles would prefer untraumatised neighbors to shell shocked refugees, who may, eventually, be able to support themselves.
I think your last paragraph is probably true. Ethnicity does colour our perspective, much as we hate ourselves for it. But I think the sheer apocalyptic horror that we are seeing trumps any racial considerations. Mutilated children are always mutilated children no matter their skin colour.
I’m curious as to your politics. Do you support Putin? I for one am willing to listen.
Of course Russia is taking in Russians from Ukraine. Who else wants to live in Russia ? Just don’t send communists to the West. We had a near miss with Saule Omarova. We don’t need any more like her.
Yeah, you do nothing. Sit in your resentment. That’s always helpful
What assistance was provided by Islamic nations ?
Unlike the author, I suspect most refugees from Ukraine intend to return home and would rather stay in a neighboring state We should focus our help here not facilitate an exodus of Ukrainian women and children.
Doesn’t take a genius to realise the “Ukrainians” showing up in the West are Africans and Middle Easterners with Ukrainian passports. Actual Ukrainians are more interested in being in societies similar to their own close to their own countries so they can return. This means they’re staying in Poland, Hungary and Slovakia.
Absolutely right. And the neighbouring Easter European countries are actually depopulated from the loss of much of their younger population who now work in western Europe – there should be np shortage of housing.
It would make far more sense (to me) to put our efforts and resources into hosting the Ukrainian refugees in the neighbouring countries from where they can easily return home if this is possible. This is far cheaper and better for everyone concerned. If they cannot return then we should look at spreading the load across Europe.
Do we really want to depopulate and deskill Ukraine (EU enlargement has effectively done this to much of Eastern Europe – asset stripping people and skills rather than building the countries up) ? Is that what the country needs or deserves ? If we have any money to spare, I’d suggest be put it into rebuilding Ukraine after this war rather than needless and expensive schemes to relocate people thousands of miles to make a few people in the West feel better.
It is doubtful that many Western nations will want to invest in rebuilding a Russian satellite country.
That depends on whether what remains of Ukraine still is a Russian satellite country when this is all over. And whether Russia manages to get better leadership and cease behaving as a rogue state.
Western nations have invested in other countries directly bordering Russia.
Exactly. For the same reasons the IMF didn’t want to fund Ukraine in the past, the West will not rebuild it unless it is free to face West. A real economy is necessary to repay debt.
Exactly what I FB’d one of our TD’s here in Ireland, as he offered wide open doors, but he deleted my post.
Could you translate please? FB I presume is Facebook? TD?
Think it’s the equivalent of MP
I suspect you are dead wrong. Ukraine was and still is a dead beat corrupt country. There is nothing there. Anybody who wants to pursue any type of intellectual endeavor will not want to return.
Vladimir thanks you for your continued support.
Thank God for Ayaan HIrsi Ali coming to the West. She is one of the most intelligent voices speaking today. There are many I’d like to see go back to Africa and the ME, but Ayaan is not one of them.
We’re already seeing “Ukrainian” refugees show up who are Africans and Middle Easterners. Once again ensuring the actual safety of civilians has turned into an ideological game to get as many foreign people into nations as far away from the war zone as possible. Most actual Ukrainians are more than happy to stay in Poland, Hungary and Slovakia. The real efforts should be made on ensuring refugee centres in these countries are safe and sanitary.
Interesting.
The reports that have been circling of Ukrainians being racist to non-white people – are these genuinely racist events or Ukrainians merely getting angry at non-Ukrainians trying to use Ukraine (and indirectly their plight) to get into Europe?
I mean if you were trying your hardest to get into Europe right now – why wouldn’t you go to Ukraine and try and get in that way? Some unscrupulous people may be doing just that.
Evidence?
I don’t doubt that Russia is scheming to funnel BAME migrants to Europe as Ukrainian refugees, however there were a fair number of third world students in Ukraine and they need to get out too.
They should be heading back home, not pretending to be Ukrainian refugees
Are they all women and children? Self-identified?
Another in the long line of Brit bashing haters.
I agree Adrian how did we end up with such bias and from many within?
Ayaan is anything but a hater of the West. Read more of her writing and you will see that she is a sane and intelligent voice. This particular piece is about refugee processing. She has been there and done that. Her writings criticizing and warning about Islam are priceless.
Fair article Ayaan but I would disagree on some points.
I would wager that more will be done to help those actually in Ukraine as you suggest. See how during the Syrian crisis we gave more aid and humanitarian funding than all other European nations combined – but it was into the region rather than at home.
You are probably correct that all the talk of accepting refugees is a bit of a gimmick – no doubt to try and keep those who complain about us “not doing enough here” quiet. I would say it won’t work and they will complain whatever.
On this:
Sadly I can think of few reasons right away. Firstly this would put Western military forces directly into deconfliction with Russian ones – one misstep and there would be escalation*. Secondly it requires full agreement from Russia, which I think will be impossible given the narrative they have been pushing from day one. To them they are saving ethno-Russians from Nazis. Allowing us to airlift their enemies to safety would not fit with that.
The first may be worth the risk , but I cannot see how Russia would allow it. Hark back to the downing of MH-17 and how Russia made up their own narrative to fit. We would see the same if they shot down a transport plane full of refugees, plus it would be an act of war.
A third reason – more tactical – is that unlike in Kabul we do not have control of the airfields. They are almost certainly in an unknown state of repair. We do not have a large footprint of people on the ground to organise and assist evacuation. A deployment of airborne brigades to secure and control as seen last summer could even be interpreted as an invasion by Russia. Again very easy to see how this could escalate into full conflict with Russia
Agreed. NO ONE will put a transport or passenger aircraft into such a hazardous situation. In Kabul, it had the support of the Taliban, until the time allowed ran out. Then, it stopped, despite there still being people wishing to leave.
How many is the author planning to take in?
She doesn’t need to, because she’s already enjoying that warm feeling of self-righteousness.
i thought she was based in the USA these days.
What difference does that make? Has the US banned refugees from the war in Ukraine?
She is living in the USA having done okay as a refugee in Europe
Quite. Time she gave a leg-up to someone else.
Yes, of course we should do what we can. But….there is a finite limit on the amount of people we ( The UK and also Europe) can keep taking and assimilating into our cultures and countries….The financial costs alone are running at £5M a day for the channel migrants and still they pour in. This all has to be paid for somehow on top of the COVID finacial package, rampaging inflation, a recession etc…There is not a bottomless pit of money……..So while emotive pleas like this opinion resonate with many of us, they need balancing with the cold hard facts of the economic reality of mass migration. I dont have any glib answers and even though in an ideal world, I would much prefer that we dont keep taking these people in, I fully realise that we dont have much option – morally and legally. Its like the lifeboats on a sinking ship that can only take 30% of the passengers….if they all try and climb on board, the lifeboats sinks and everyone goes down…….Simplistic I know, but its the case here and people dont or wont realise this.
As long as we have a fiat currency, we actually do have a bottomless pit of money. The main reason for the inflation we now have.
So why does anybody have to pay tax?
It’s a policy to handle the inflationary effect on consumer goods (bad) and asset prices (good) of printing fiat currency. It works alongside easy access to debt and exposure to debt stress.
The hyper rich pay very little tax and have comparatively little debt, so are the main beneficiaries of policy.
The less well off spend more of their income on consumer goods, are heavily indebted and vulnerable to debt stress, so are the main losers.
A lot of agricultural fields near me are currently being covered in housing. On the other hand, the sewage works remains as it was 30 years ago. And the schools. And the roads. And every now and again, they try to shut the hospital and get us to travel elsewhere for 30 minutes, despite the fact the city is the centre of local road and rail communication.
It’s what we voted for
With the best will in the world, are there actually the millions of vacant properties in Europe that will be required to house the refugees?
We could start by filling all the mansions and yachts seized from the Russian oligarchs! Therefore helping Ukrainians and further p!ssing off Putin, two birds one stone!
And the density of population is a fraction of ours. Soon, Ukraine, with a very low density now, will be even lower, although I suspect Putin has a solution in mind.
I respect Ukraine for keeping all the fighting age men to… you know… fight. Unlike some other places which seem to send refugees who are almost exclusively fighting age men.
It made me think that we should have a Titanic lifeboat kind of policy.
Repatriation is rarely part of the conversation, but it desperately needs to be. For all refugees and asylum seekers. Are we going to leave e.g. Syria, a wasteland bereft of people?
But why do we bring people so many thousands of miles away anyway? Helping them where they are has always been so much more cost effective.
“… significant investments – nothing less than a new Marshall Plan – will be needed to rebuild the country.”
Because anything less than that would also be a gimmick? How can the Homes For Ukraine scheme be “nothing more than a gimmick”? A quick-fix Marshall Plan, for all its shortcomings, must be the duty of the good countries of Europe that lie west and north-west of Belarus and Ukraine (except Kaliningrad, I imagine). Maybe even faraway Iceland’s going to get involved.
Normally, the word “plan” suggests some time is essential in order to get things right, as in “planning for their repatriation.” And in that regard, the “swift rebuilding of Ukraine” would show Putin that the Ukrainians are rightfully attached to their homeland – belong to Ukraine. And Ukraine belongs to them.
Did Turkey operate a Home For Syrians scheme? It may not have had the money to do that – the scheme is surely not a gimmick. Moreover, Britain is not even Ukraine’s dear neighbour. The West must be doing a fine job! Syrians and Ukrainians may receive British or EU citizenship, eventually. A Home-For scheme would give encouragement to refugees and a fresh hope that they are loved and recognised for their worth as human beings. That’s a Christian response, in my view. And I imagine the 100,000 of Her Majesty’s subjects who have signed up are to a degree a multicultural bunch, a few of whom, it is not inconceivable, were once refugees themselves. It’s surely not a gimmicky response, surely not.
But checks must be made – across Europe. The Ukrainian fighting men want to be reassured that their families are safe, not prey to wicked individuals and trafficking gangs. Perhaps strict border controls, as soon as the refugees started to arrive in Poland, Hungary, Slovakia and Romania, should have been enacted on all EU borders heading into those four countries that border Ukraine on their eastern flanks, in order to prevent the traffickers from entering them and then disappearing back into the continent – where the money is. Or at least an enhanced security in the roads leading to where the refugees pitch up. Everything’s a tall order. It’s a mighty mess that Putin has inflicted. He has piled on worries onto every individual.
I think that the author here senses that a swift and seamless removal of refugees from the war zone into safe homes well away, has the effect of making Putin’s attempts to de-Ukrainize Ukraine appear almost a fait accompli. Hence her thoughts about the awareness of needing to help the refugees to return and rebuild, swiftly, if they soon can.
The Yazidi population, by rights, had the right to remove themselves wholesale out of the Middle East for safety. But many wanted to stay, even fight. (They lacked the tools to do that though). They did not want their connection to north-west Iraq to disappear forever.
But right now there is little prospect for peace and harmony in Ukraine. The West is surely doing a good job so far.
By the mid-1950s, there were still German refugees from their former eastern Prussian lands still living in tin huts within West Germany.
And not just Germans. I well remember adults talk of ‘DPs’.
Displaced persons?
This all seems to assume the issue will be quite short term.
We all hope so, but the geopolitical tensions that started this aren’t going away for a long time.
Europe may need to be considering how it helps several million women and children start a new life, in a new country, on a permanent basis, a rather more daunting challenge.
In other news, Ali volunteers for front line duty in Ukraine. She means other peoples’ sons ought to go and ‘do’ something. This attack on the West (including Japan and Singapore etc) from this argument of ideal perfection. The West is imperfect so it’s bad compared to…some ideal? And that country, the Land of Cokaygne, this Erewhon is…? The left hate the West and so do the right who admire Putin. What’s the inference of that?
It’s a canard that the right, or at least elements of it, admire Putin. That’s objectively false. The right takes Putin seriously, more seriously than trans rights in the army, or the phantom menace of man-made global warming. The left won’t pump one barrel more of domestic oil, even if that means Putin can kill thousands of Ukrainians with the munitions he buys with his oil sales at inflated prices. The left will expell experienced soldiers who think a person with a d**k is still a man, even if he says he’s a woman. The left thinks wokeness is more important than military readiness. Putin obviously doesn’t. That’s the contrast the right is making. Putin is serious. Biden and the left are not. It has nothing to do with admiration. It just takes an enemy seriously.
Leftists who identify as journalists purposely misconstrue Trump’s, and the right’s, position on Putin so that they can claim nobody would have stopped Putin. That’s obviously false as well. Trump stopped Putin for 4 years. Obama and Biden both failed to stop Putin. Green New Deal policies enable Putin. All out energy production in North America, facilitated by pipelines to transport oil and natural gas to market, weaken Putin. Legalizing fracking in Europe and the UK would help long term. It’s that simple.
We in the US would do what we can, but the immigration strategy of the current administration is racially and ethnically selective. In the interests of diversity, equity and inclusion, current policy dictates that the majority of migrants are required to be people of color. This is to offset the majority-white population and to create a more diverse and equitable society. Our southern border is currently wide open and we have seen an influx of nearly 2 million in the last year. Most of these migrants are from Mexico and Central and South America. Many of these people have been clandestinely distributed to strategic locations around the country. This operation has been quite successful thus far in diversifying the voter base, which will likely bolster the Democratic Party in the up-coming midterm elections. Consequently, it is not in the interests of the Biden administration to implement a policy encouraging mass migration of Ukrainian refugees. Being people of Slavic ethnicity, they are too light-skinned and would therefore dilute the migrant pool in a counterproductive fashion. Also, most people of Eastern European descent have a marked disdain for socialist political systems, and when eventually assimilated would not likely support the current majority Party.
My hope, all our hopes, are for a peace settlement to be reached. Should that prove to be the case, Ukrainians will presumably wish to return home won’t they? Of course our efforts to accommodate refugees is worthy and admirable and we should do what we reasonably might. I am struck however, by how much more the media expect the UK to do for refugees from other countries, than in more peaceful times we appear to do for our own homeless. The author is fortunate to have found the help she needed, but then and now not all were so lucky. And that is a fact of life, I’m afraid.
I think the government should provide large tents so that refugees can stay in the gardens of people who want to help but don’t have bedroom space.
Humans being humans, its likely that those with the least will offering help while those with much will be listing reasons why they can’t help.
As for people traffickers, sentences of 20 years should be standard.
Like the people traffickers currently so busy in Calais?
Something should be done ! The author would have some credibility if she came up with a sensible plan fully costed. Feelings do not build camps.
Where are the people, how many, type of temporary accommodation needed, power, water and sewage treatment, waste disposal facilities, food, clothes, schools, medical centres, etc? What are required are the sort of military bases constructed in Iraq and Afghanistan or used by oil, construction and mining industries. Freight containers can be turned into bedroom and bathroom units and stacked 3 to 4 high with stairways. Communal kitchens, laundries, waste disposal, facilities, schools, medical centres, etc could be constructed. These sorts of facilities the the USA is very good at providing.
Twice Britain went to war to protect other nations In Europe and by 1942 we were bankrupt. We borrowed from the USA who insisted we pay interest on the loans and sell all our overseas asset. How about the USA pay the UK some of the money paid in interest?
At the end of the television series ” World at War ” Prof Stephen Ambrose sums up what was the result. ” The USA became the world’s wealthiest and most powerful nation. The USSR became a super power and secured it’s borders. Germany and France became functioning democracies. The UK earned the moral claim of taking the leadership against the Nazis when everyone else was caving in and paid the most for victory and gained then least.”
18 min
World at War Last Episode with Stephen Ambrose – YouTube
So many $Bs is the USA prepared to pay to help the refugees in countries neighbouring Ukraine?
The people who may be best suited to help are probably least able to. I am out at work 12 hours plus a day. I can’t help care for traumatised refugees. My parents are 85. They can’t help care for traumatised refugees either.
Aayan is such a trusted voice; it’s nice to hear from her. But there is something unspoken in her assessment. I agree that burden-sharing is Humanity’s way forward. However, the burden of a such a population explosion that the world has seen in the past 100 years is, I think, much greater than we are acknowledging. She makes a valid point that we should not use a self-congratulatory, feel-good gimmick such as a government sponsored AirBNB to solve the refugee issue as it literally opens doors to dangerous opportunism. However, massive migration for any reason is simply chaos in the making. It’s time for strong words to support real principles and enforceable agreements. Population groups have a right to stay where they are if they and their groups behave in a civilized fashion. Certainly the Ukrainians, Armenians, Jews and Kurds have done so. They deserve protection and support from the global community. Turks, Palestinians, Iranians, Hezbollah and Hamas have not been good world citizens. Collective punishment is not something we want to encourage but the truth is, justice sometimes calls for it. In the case of the Ukrainians, the collective punishment is being directed at Russian oligarchs and the Russian economy. It’s a fair response, and it fairly leverages a useful solution. Let’s hope Putin finds his Novichok delivery soon.
You are a great writer of your own experience and I admire your work but you have been taken in by the international NED/EED propaganda push regarding Ukraine interventions which will only prolong the suffering and continue to make arms dealers rich. The only way to end this is to have legitimate demilitarization conversations and end NATO or quasi NATO aspirations in Ukraine. Do you not wonder why US pols have been cutting deals with the Ukrainian government which they essentially installed in 2014?
Honestly, I am beginning to think there is a peculiar mental quirk in the Anglo-American psyche that gets suckered into these moral outrage military interventions (which never work by the way because they resort to violence ahead of necessary dialogue and compromise). Who is benefiting from these never ending conflicts? Ask our governments who tend to have direct personal investments in MI business. Iraq, Syria, Libya, Afganistán, Vietnam, and yes, Somalia too. Do we care that the Saudis are using our weapons to commit genocide in Yemen against what started as a democratic movement?
Please forgive the rant but UnHerd is not supposed to be TheHerd! I do agree with you on assisting refugees. They are the hapless victims of the corrupt Ukrainian government which has been poking the bear even after repeated warnings (counting on international “friends” to back them up). Even now, where is Zelensky? Still think he’s bravely in Kiev?
The EU has pretty much opened its borders. The U.K. has not. What’s the point of this article?
We’ve had about three thousand channel-crossers already this year. I don’t think we’re encouraged to call them ‘illegals’ any more.
Our borders are wide open to anyone who doesn’t mind the boat ride; they never get repatriated.
As regards this article, she writes
‘Once the Ukrainians arrive, we need to rush them into language and skill-building classes immediately.’
In the next paragraph she writes
‘But we must also start planning for their repatriation, closely tied to the swift rebuilding of Ukraine. After all, most of the refugees will want to return to their homes, if they can, as soon as possible.’
So we’re giving them the skills to settle here, but also expecting them to go home soon. A confused position.
Have you heard of Schengen?
Schengen is for internal borders.
If Germany and Italy stopped buying Russian Gas, it would be persuasive. Britain provided missiles and training plus pushed expelling Russia from SWIFT. Germany sent helmets and missiles in rotten wooden boxes and how many worked?
Which EU army do do think will provide better training for the Ukrainians than the British in the type of combat they find themselves? Effect, not affectation.
Worth watching: https://youtu.be/h9DtoNm0QJA
Countries should be generous towards refugees but they should not be naive.One of the mistakes the neo-cons made over the Iraq War was they assumed lots of former Iraqi refugees would go back to Iraq to help rebuild the country after Saddam was toppled .Most never did.
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