Authors

Discussion

Temporary Protection Directive (TPD) activated by the European Union (EU) in response to the influx of Ukrainian asylum seekers fleeing from Russian aggression in 2022 saved national asylum systems of the host states from collapse. While the beneficiaries of the TPD implementation praise the advantages it provides for securing their rights and providing opportunities, experts raise attention to the deficiencies which should be addresses for the sake of a more efficient response in future. Among such shortcomings are creation of a “waiting dilemma” for the refugees who are stuck in uncertainty, triggering secondary migration and respective uncertainty for the employers, lack of harmonization in approaches to providing a refugee status to the applicants in EU Member States. The empirical experience has also activated a “selective benevolence” discussion in academic as well as political and social discourses claiming more benevolent attitude provided to Ukrainian refugees compared to groups coming from other regions, e.g., Middle East. All these issues provide great empirical foundation for reconsidering approaches to human rights securing, international crises management, regulation of refugee influxes, efficiency of UN agencies dealing with the issue. This discussion aims at making conclusions from those advantages which TPD activation granted to Ukrainian refugees’ rights and freedoms securing. And, on the other hand to address the issue of perception of the refugees in the host societies (Central European states) and compare it to the perception of previous waves of refugee influx. This will help detecting the foundations for “selective benevolence” approach.