Protecting Ukrainians fleeing to the EU … but for how long?

Two million people have already fled across the EU’s eastern border since the start of the Russian invasion of Ukraine and the numbers of refugees who continue to flee suggest that the total numbers could rise to multiple millions. It is already now the biggest refugee movement in Europe since the Second World War. EU Member States are committed under international and EU law to offer protection to people fleeing the conflict in Ukraine. This is not in doubt. Rather, the immediate issues are: (1) who benefits from the EU’s protection? (2) how is the burden of these large numbers of refugees shared? The EU’s swift response is the activation of a little-known, little-regarded and never-used law to provide those fleeing the war in Ukraine ‘temporary protection’. It is the right law at this time, but, shortly, the protection of refugees from Ukraine is likely to become a contested issue. These matters are considered in this blog post.