The welcome given to Ukrainian refugees in Belgium greatly contrasts the treatment afforded to other asylum seekers upon their arrival, new research by the University of Antwerp has revealed.
Following the outbreak of the Russian war in Ukraine, thousands fled to European countries for their safety. The EU's rapid activation of the Temporary Protection Directive for displaced persons resulted in Ukrainian refugees being given a quick bypass for complex and lengthy asylum procedures, including in Belgium. Here, it gave them the right to remain in the country and access the Belgian labour market.
Researchers in the University of Antwerp's latest Yearbook on Poverty and Inequality have stressed that there is a "staggering disparity" between this treatment of Ukrainian refugees and that of asylum seekers.
"The rapid and relatively coordinated approach to the reception of Ukrainians and their access to housing, assistance and education contrasts with the approach to the reception crisis for other applicants for international protection," the researchers noted.
Warm welcome
The need for the construction of emergency villages was immediately recognised for Ukrainian war refugees. By comparison, for asylum seekers, there is a chronic shortage of reception places.
Since October 2021, this has resulted in thousands of asylum seekers sleeping rough rather than getting the shelter they are legally entitled to. "They have to sleep on the streets or in squats while waiting for a reception place," researchers noted.
Ukrainian refugees at the registration centre at Palais 8 in Brussels. Credit: Belga
"Even after approval of their demand for international protection, the steps towards integration, housing, education or benefits were and are often much more difficult for these recognised refugees and beneficiaries of subsidiary protection." This continues to be the case, despite thousands of convictions against the Belgian State for failing to provide reception for asylum seekers.
Meanwhile, to accommodate refugees from Ukraine, the Belgian Government even appealed to citizens to help out with the campaign #PlekVrij. Even when the reception crisis reached a climax when children were left to sleep on the streets, no similar campaign was launched for asylum seekers.
Undeserving migrants?
Researchers noted that the sense of urgency that was there among governments and the wider population after the influx of Ukrainian war refugees is missing when it comes to other refugees and asylum seekers.
The arrival of Ukrainian refugees also provided evidence that it was possible to work together at different policy levels, however, the reception crisis has repeatedly been a game of shifting responsibility and finger-pointing, including to the EU.
Many local governments oppose additional reception places, and the state continues to abstain from implementing the dispersal plan provided for in national law that would see every municipality having to provide shelter to a certain number of people.
Researchers noted that, at least on a human level, there was likely more goodwill for Ukrainian refugees because the country is closer to home for Belgians.
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However, a distinction is also made between the so-called deserving and undeserving, with the public regarding Ukrainian refugees as deserving refugees who have earned their empathy and reception. On the other hand, society often questions the reasoning of asylum seekers, calling them fortune seekers, and regarding them as undeserving.
"Both the federal and regional authorities fall short and seem to distinguish between 'deserving' and 'undeserving' refugees. The integration of undeserving refugees is made more difficult and their poverty risk increases."
The researchers concluded that people in Belgium need to stop thinking that certain asylum seekers do not deserve reception.
