Wave of Solidarity with Refugees

Bombs targeting residential buildings, fleeing civilians killed, hundreds of thousands without water and electricity for over a week, lack of food and medical equipment. These and other hellish conditions and distress in Ukraine have created a huge wave of sympathy and voluntary solidarity action throughout Europe, in support of refugees fleeing the warzone.

This, in turn, has put politicians and the EU as a whole under pressure, and forced them to act. But, as we saw in 2015, the solidarity from below and the politicians’ plans are not compatible.

More than 100,000 refugees a day have left Ukraine since the Russian army’s attack began two weeks ago. On Monday, March 7, there were 1.8 million refugees in neighboring countries and maybe two million within the country. The vast majority are women and children, alongside a few older people. Men aged 18–60 are not allowed to leave Ukraine. The UN refugee agency (UNHCR) predicts in its latest forecast that four million will flee the country and that 12 million internally displaced people will need help.

The evacuation from Mariupol, which has not yet taken place on Tuesday, March 8, would cover as many as 300,000 people, out of the total city population of 500,000.

It is the fastest growing refugee disaster since World War II. More than one million Ukrainian refugees are now in Poland, with major efforts underway by volunteers, aid organizations and authorities. People in the border city of Przemysl and from all around Poland offer food, clothing, medicine, accommodation, car transport and buses to various cities in Europe. In contrast, apart from opening up the border, the response of the Polish state has been slow, chaotic, bureaucratic and totally insufficient. It is only the empathy and solidarity of ordinary working people in Poland that has avoided a humanitarian disaster so far.

One organization that supports refugees pointed out the absurdity of the Polish government’s long-standing refusal to accept refugees. As recently as last week, armed Polish border guards forced eight refugees from Syria back to Belarus.

The Hungarian government, which, like the Polish one, has long been directly hostile to refugees, has also been forced to open the border and receive over 180,000 in the first two weeks of the war. To Moldova, one of Europe’s poorest countries, miles of car queues have brought 83,000 refugees (by March 7).

New EU Rules

After a week of war, the EU decided on extraordinary new rules. Refugees from Ukraine have, without individual examination, the right to choose an EU country (meaning they do not have to stay in the arrival country) and the right to “schooling, care and welfare and work permits” for up to three years. The fact that the decision applies to only citizens and long-term residents of Ukraine has led to a racist division of those who cross the border. People from Africa and Asia have ended up last in the queues or have not received help.

Swedish politicians have also made record-breaking complete U-turns. Two weeks ago, Prime Minister Magdalena Andersson said that Sweden “can never return to the situation we had in 2015”. The government thus continued to fuel the right-wing myth that virtually everything negative — care crisis, housing shortage, crime — was caused by those who came to Sweden in 2015 and previous refugees.

But the images from Ukraine — including the video of a refugee family being killed in Irpin outside Kyiv being shown by media around the world — has created a strong trend in public opinion. An opinion poll showed that 81% believe that Sweden should receive refugees, and 35% that it should be “to a very large extent”. Conservative opposition leader Ulf Kristersson, who was pictured with a rifle when he said that immigration must be reduced, now says that Sweden should receive those fleeing Ukraine. Even the racist “Sweden Democrat” party sound much the same, even where they rule in the city of Sölvesborg.

These are the same politicians who previously said that they can not influence the Swedish Migration Board or intervene on “individual cases”, as seen when young refugees were led in handcuffs and foot shackles to be forcibly deported to Afghanistan in a cold-blooded manner. The Swedish Migration Board now points out that the number of places for housing refugees has been reduced from 100,000 to 10,000 in recent years, as politicians “said that a new 2015, when there were so many, will not be allowed” (Fredrik Bengtsson, Swedish Migration Agency).

Be Wary of “Solidarity” of the Establishment

It is welcome that refugees are offered protection and opportunities for housing, work and school for the children. That it is happening right now without talk of “social collapse” or that “Sweden is full” or “there are no resources” shows what the solidarity movement and socialists have always said — there is an opportunity to offer work, education, housing and care to all.

But the “solidarity” of the elite is not the same as that of workers, young people and ordinary people. For them, receiving refugees is a way to justify their own power, to increase nationalism and militarism, including continuing the rearmament of the military. Politicians also use the racist argument that Ukrainians are not the same as refugees from the Middle East.

2015 showed how fast politicians, the EU and governments can swing. When one million of the 6.6 million Syrian refugees had reached Europe, the EU paid Erdogan in exchange for Turkey stopping the arrival of more refugees. Horrible refugee camps in Greece, Libya and other countries became permanent. Armed borders were strengthened. The number of deportations increased.

Of the 2.6 million refugees from Afghanistan following the Taliban takeover last year, the EU has received 40,000.

The rights of refugees will never be secured by the EU or the Swedish state. On the contrary, they will constantly scapegoat refugees and try to divide struggles from below. Strong solidarity movements are needed, which at the same time as fighting for the right to asylum struggle for a major overhaul of welfare, affordable housing, permanent jobs with a wage to live on for all.