Why are we treating Syrians so differently to Ukrainian refugees?

Their country is in the exact same situation: being bombed by Vladimir Putin

I don’t believe the public supports this government’s cruelty (PA Wire)

Last month, 25-year-old Andriy Kovalenko just about managed to escape the city of Mariupol as Russians were advancing, and made his way to Poland. But the refugee camps were overflowing, so he made his way further west, towards Germany and eventually France. There, he made some friends and decided that, because he knew some broken English, he would make his way into Britain. He had heard good things about the country in the media and was hopeful he would be welcomed.

But as he was making his way across the English Channel, in a boat full of other refugees, they were stopped. Now the government wants to deport him to Rwanda for processing. As one of the first deportation flights to Rwanda gets under way, he may be on it.

Surely, most right thinking people would be outraged by the prospect of us deporting a desperate and deserving asylum seeker such as Andriy to Rwanda? After all, his land is being bombarded and destroyed, and he just travelled across a continent for safety, only to find out he was being shipped off to a country run by a cruel dictator.

Now, imagine if we did the same to a Syrian refugee. Their country is in the exact same situation: being bombed by Vladimir Putin to help the dictator Bashar al-Assad maintain control. Entire towns have been blown into smithereens exactly like Mariupol. Millions of Syrians simply have nowhere to live. The neighbouring countries are already overflowing with refugees, so some have gone further away to find shelter.

And yet, while Boris Johnson was adamant that no Ukrainian refugee would end up going to Rwanda, his home secretary is currently trying to deport Syrians to Rwanda. I made up the story of Andriy Kovalenko – there’s no such case as far as I know – to illustrate a point: while Syrians and Ukrainians are largely in the same situation, there is a huge difference in how our government is treating them. For one, British people are being actively encouraged to take Ukrainian refugees into their homes to house them in Britain – we’re even being paid to do so.

Some might argue that we have more obligation towards fellow Europeans than to those escaping conflict in the Middle East or further away like South Asia. I wouldn’t necessarily call that racist – I think it’s ok to say we have added obligation towards our neighbours. But the same argument was made against Jews escaping Nazi Germany (which is why we only allowed in the children) and the same argument was made against Asians escaping persecution from Idi Amin in Uganda.

And yet, German Jews and Ugandan Asians – along with people from Hong Kong and Vietnam and many other refugees from across the world – have made Britain their home and contributed immensely towards British life and prosperity. We should treat people according to their need, not their proximity. We should treat Syrians and Ukrainians equally – only that would be fair.

If the scheme to deport refugees to Rwanda makes you uncomfortable, it should do. The cruelty is the point. Priti Patel and Johnson don’t care how much it costs, they think it sends a strong message and will act as a deterrent. But the same was said about Theresa May’s “hostile environment” policies and they didn’t deter anyone either.

The British government’s starkly different approach towards Ukrainian and Syrian refugees should make us think twice. Do we want to be known for our generosity and fairness, or a country that doesn’t think twice about locking up refugees in a detention camp in a dictatorship?

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I don’t believe the public supports this government’s cruelty. But they have been sold a lie that this is the only “tough decision” possible to stop trafficking and the channel deaths. That has already proven to be false.

If this government was intent on stopping trafficking, it would go after the traffickers, not the desperate refugees. If there are too many refugees being housed in hotels, it’s because the home office has been shown to be incapable of processing people quickly and letting them earn their own living. Instead they are left in limbo, forced to rely on the state when they would prefer to be self-sufficient.

The Andriy Kovalenko I mentioned earlier may have been fictitious, but the story of his journey is shared by thousands of refugees. And it’s undoubtedly a story of refugees being treated differently because of their origin. That’s a story that should shame this government and its supporters.