Race fuels double standards on refugees

Double standards have become apparent in the contrasting ways Western countries have responded to the plight of refugees from within Europe and those from outside the region, say analysts who also see racism at work.

The United Nations' refugee agency said on Sunday that more than 3.8 million people had fled Ukraine over the past month, with women and children making up around 90 percent of them. Poland has taken in 2.2 million people and Romania has opened its borders to half a million of those fleeing the conflict.

The displays of compassion across Europe over the past month stand in marked contrast with the hostility shown toward refugees from the Middle East and Africa over the past few years.

Kathryn Mahoney, a spokesperson for the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, said recently that the agency welcomed the European Union's move to take in Ukrainian refugees among the member states, but stressed there was an urgent need for nations to respond similarly to other "serious "and "unresolved" displacements of people caused by humanitarian crises in Afghanistan, Syria, Ethiopia and elsewhere.

Ding Long, a professor at the Middle East Studies Institute of Shanghai International Studies University, said that the European countries' refugee policies have not been consistent. Their treatment of people of color from a range of origin countries exposes "double standards and even racism on the refugee issue".

He said that many European countries locked their doors to Syrian refugees in 2015 and to those fleeing Afghanistan last year. During the Ukraine crisis, they have ostensibly opened their doors to people fleeing the conflict. But in practice, European nations have also divided refugees into different groups and discriminated against them.

"Tens of thousands of people of African and Middle Eastern origin living in Ukraine face difficulties in leaving the country and entering EU countries," he said.

Sharp difference

Ding also points to the sharp difference in how Western media cover the Ukraine crisis compared with how they portray refugees from other regions. This makes clear the double standards and deep-rooted racial bias in these countries, he said.

In their reports, many Western journalists have focused on the appearance, skin color, race and religion of the Ukrainian refugees, and have made a comparison between them and refugees from the Middle East and North Africa.

"This shows that not all refugees are worthy of sympathy in the US-led West's perspective," he said. The unspoken implication is that the former are superior to the latter and have less reason to suffer from any plight.

Kelly Cobiella, an NBC News correspondent based in London, said in a video report: "To put it bluntly, these are not refugees from Syria, these are refugees from Ukraine…They're Christian, they're white, they're very similar (to us)."

On BFM TV, France's most-watched cable news channel, journalist Phillipe Corbe said: "We're not talking here about Syrians … We're talking about Europeans leaving in cars that look like ours to save their lives."

Zhang Lihua, a professor of the Department in International Relations and director of the Center for China-Europe Relations at Tsinghua University, said that while in the previous refugee crisis the European Union set a quota for member countries to take in refugees, some countries in Central and Eastern Europe firmly rejected the directive. However, this time, they have welcomed Ukrainian refugees.

She said that not only Ukrainian refugees in Europe need attention. Those who remain inside Ukraine and refugees in other conflict zones around the world also need the world's help.

Ding said that since the Ukraine crisis broke out, the US-led West has focused on the humanitarian damage caused by the conflict in Ukraine, but for too long it has turned a blind eye to the war, death and displacement in the Middle East and North Africa. To a large extent, the US-led West is behind these regional upheavals and refugee crises.

Xinhua contributed to this story.