Failure to use the EU’s Temporary Protection Directive in 2015 was the ‘wrong decision’, Home Affairs Commissioner Ylva Johansson told EURACTIV, reflecting on the refugee crisis caused by Russia’s war on Ukraine and the EU’s response one year on.
“If you had asked more than a year ago if we would be able to manage a situation where we have millions and millions of refugees coming into the EU, I would have doubted that – but we did,” Johansson said, sitting in her Berlaymont office.
“When I took office as a Commissioner, we were in a situation where the whole migration policy area was blocked and a bit toxic and very difficult to deal with. My main task from Commission President Von der Leyen was to unblock it and to find a way to deal with migration and migration management in an orderly way,” she said.
“On Thursday morning, when the invasion started, we woke up to see the scale was larger than what we had expected,” she said, recalling that 40-50,000 Ukrainian refugees crossed into the EU on the first day.
Temporary protection
Less than a week after the war started, the EU activated the bloc’s Temporary Protection Directive (TPD) for the first time, a 20-year-old law designed to help shelter refugees.
The measure allowed Ukrainians to move freely across the EU, giving them instant rights to live and work within the bloc, and also offering them access to social service benefits like housing and medical care.
It meant they were given temporary residency status without having to go through complex asylum procedures.
The swift and unanimous decision to use the refugee protection clause was remarkable, given that migration has historically fractured the EU.
It also stands in stark contrast to the years of stalled efforts over EU asylum rules.
“There was a hesitancy among member states at first, especially among those most affected, asking how this would actually work,” she said.
“It was then that I also remember the refugee crisis we had in 2015, where we didn’t activate the Temporary Protection Directive, which I think was a wrong decision,” she added.
The EU recently extended the directive until March 2024 and has launched a pilot platform to help Ukrainians to find employment in member states.
Lessons learned
Asked about the lessons learned from dealing with Ukraine refugee flows over the past year, Johansson said
“One of the also important things was we immediately set up the Solidarity Platform and we have a very close collaboration between the member states, the European Commission and the bloc’s agencies, and invited external partners such as the US, Canada, and UK,” she added.
“We were also quite early in awareness raising when it comes to the huge risk of human trafficking and it seems now one year later, that this has been quite successful – we have very few cases of trafficking, taking into account that that we had 16 million entries last year,” Johansson said.
Johansson also emphasised the importance of strong relations between the EU and the Ukrainian government and authorities. “When we made proposals on massive refugee situations like the TPD, we had not taken into account the possibility to be able to work with the government from the country where they’re fleeing from – it’s a very unique situation that we could do that and that helped us a lot,” she added. According to her, this is a lesson for future situations involving refugees. Asked whether those solutions could be translated into future migration crises, Johansson said: “Definitely, when all member states work together, with the Commission, with our agencies – God we are strong – we can do a lot, we can handle a lot – this is the most important lesson learned.”
Concerns remain
“The numbers have been stable for almost a year now,” Johansson said, though she acknowledges that “housing remains a concern” for many members states as many refugees are in big cities where there may already be a housing shortage.
However, when it comes to schooling, Johansson noted that efforts have been “a success story” as member states have been able to accommodate 700-750,000 children in schools.
“It’s truly amazing how member states have managed this capacity building so quickly,” Johansson said.
This includes a growing number of adults in vocational training and language courses, with more than 650,000 refugees having already found a job out of 2 million of working age. Additionally, 450,000 refugees have enrolled in public employment services to search for jobs, according to EU estimates.
Asked whether the Ukrainian side is requesting specific help, Johansson said these include primarily support for children, especially those who have been kidnapped into Russia, and war orphans.
More money needed
Asked whether the EU would consider stronger financial measures to support front-line countries receiving migrants, Johansson said that while the emergency situation has passed, the EU’s “financial support will have to continue in the long-term.”
“We have already changed a lot in the EU budget – it could be around 10 billion that have been made available mostly via cohesion funds,” Johansson said.
“It is not something that you can just stop, and it is something that the member states understand,” she added.
Here to stay?
“The other issue is, of course, that they hope that their citizens will come back to Ukraine – it is a concern for the Ukrainian government,” Johansson said.
“Because what is emerging now is really that a lot of members would like to keep Ukrainian refugees because they need them in the labour market and Ukraine wants them to come back, now or later,” she added.
In recent weeks, Ukraine’s government has been eager to communicate it wants to create conditions necessary for the return of those who fled to safety, worried about a potentially permanent ‘brain-drain’ from the country.
One in three Ukrainian refugees feels part of their host country’s community. Still, according to findings of the EU’s Fundamental Rights Agency (FRA), the same number also want to go home.
“The focus is that it’s absolutely necessary that we continue supporting Ukraine with military efforts because Putin must not win – this is the absolute most important thing,” Johansson said.
“When we are talking about after the war, it has to be that Putin has lost, because otherwise, this will never end,” Johansson said.
Source: euractiv.com
