{"id":10447,"date":"2023-11-26T14:53:19","date_gmt":"2023-11-26T13:53:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/svjmedia.nl\/internationaljournalism\/?p=10447"},"modified":"2023-11-26T14:53:19","modified_gmt":"2023-11-26T13:53:19","slug":"radio-show-ukraine-the-vulnerable-position-of-third-country-refugees","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/svjmedia.nl\/internationaljournalism\/10447\/radio-show-ukraine-the-vulnerable-position-of-third-country-refugees\/","title":{"rendered":"Radio show Ukraine: the vulnerable position of third-country refugees"},"content":{"rendered":"
Since Russia launched its widescale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, around five million Ukrainians have fled their country to elsewhere in Europe. In many European Union member states, special protection measures for Ukrainian refugees were quickly set up. However, there are not only Ukrainian citizens who fled the war: there are also students from Nigeria and Turkmenistan, or migrant workers from Morocco and India who have fled. These are the so-called \u2018third country nationals\u2019. These people do not hold Ukrainian nationality and do not have a Ukrainian passport, but are from outside the European Union and have a residence permit, and in most cases that is a temporary residence permit in Ukraine. This group is mostly made up of students or migrant workers.<\/p>\n
I had the chance to interview Professor Carolus Gr\u00fctters, senior researcher at the Centre of Migration Law at Radboud University in Nijmegen, the Netherlands, and an expert on the laws and regulations surrounding migration and the rights of migrants and refugees. We discussed what the legal approach surrounding the special temporary protection looks like in Europe and who is subject to those measures, as well as where the term \u2018third-country national\u2019 originates from. Because, for me at least, this was quite a new term. Professor Gr\u00fctters also explained to me the complex situation around third-country nationals. There is a lot of confusion currently whether these people are allowed to stay in Europe, and in this case, we discussed the situation in the Netherlands. According to Professor Gr\u00fctters, the people with a temporary residence permit in Ukraine who fled to the Netherlands were told that they would receive protection for as long as the Russo-Ukrainian war lasted. Then, some of them received a letter in January of this year that their protection would last until March 2024. So, there was a deadline. Will the Ukrainian war be solved by that time? However, one month later, in February, they were told: sorry, we sent that letter to you wrongly, and your protection ends in 4 weeks. Later on, they were told they could stay until September. This caused a lot of confusion for the third-country nationals: am I allowed to stay or not? If I have to leave, until when do I have the time? And if I want to stay, can I apply for asylum? This is what Professor Gr\u00fctters said about the legal procedures surrounding Ukrainians and in particular third-country nationals and the confusion on whether they are allowed to stay here or not.<\/p>\n