Ukrainians fleeing Russia's invasion of their country are being greeted with open arms in France – provided with food and water, help with paperwork, and offers of housing. However aid groups, who welcome the support for Ukrainians, worry that refugees from other countries are being forgotten.
"A friend found friends who could house us here in Paris," says Nataliya, a French teacher from Kyiv, who is sitting in the Ukrainian refugee welcome centre at the Porte de Versailles conference venue in the south of Paris. It's one of two such centres in the French capital where many Ukrainians end up after crossing Europe.
"When my body started shaking, that’s when I understood that we had to leave our country. We stayed a bit, but after everything we heard, we decided to leave. We had no other choice."
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Nataliya left Kyiv with her two daughters, aged 11 and 16, who are sitting with their mother on plastic chairs at the centre, waiting their turn to receive residency papers.
This centre can process about 200 people at a time, providing help with paperwork and housing.
Full families with children arrive here, carrying suitcases and plastic bags full of belongings, and carriers with their pets.
It has bathrooms and play areas for the kids. People can get food and water during the day, and sleep here a few nights on cots until they can find more permanent accommodation.
Housing around the country
France is prepared for the arrival of 100,000 Ukrainian refugees.
So far, about 10,000 residency permits have been handed out. Housing in Paris is now saturated, so people are being sent out to other parts of the country with bus transport provided, if they want.
Nataliya and her children left Ukraine with a colleague, Oksana, and her 3-year-old daughter, accompanied by a French woman who had been living in Kyiv and who has been helping the Ukrainians sort out their paperwork in France.
The group travelled by car, with one of the the older kids sitting on the floor, as there were not enough seats for everyone.
They arrived in France via Romania, Hungary, Austria and then Germany.
"The first days were tiring, but now it's better because things are getting organised," says Oksana, sitting on a chair next to her daughter, who is asking to play with the phone.
Easy paperwork
The two are being put up in a room in the city, and they are at the centre to get documents – a six-month residency permit, renewable up to three years, part of the European Union’s Temporary Protection Directive.
It's been activated for the very first time since it was put in place in 2001 following the influx of people into the EU from Bosnia.
The goal is to simplify the processing of large numbers of people in need of international protection, by bypassing the asylum process.
The residency permit gives access to social services in France, including healthcare and even a stipend for asylum seekers.
Oksana and her daughter wait patiently for the paperwork to be processed. They are tired – as are most of the people here, who have spent days on the road.
Adaptation
"It was difficult because bombs were falling everywhere. The children had never seen that and they were so scared," says Malik, who left Kyiv with his wife and their five children, and who has not slept for three days.
The family just arrived on a bus from Germany. They aimed for France, because of the language – Malik is from Mali, and speaks French, though his Ukrainian wife and their children do not.
They plan to stay in France for a while, and enroll the children in school.
"With the adaptation they will learn French," says Malik; adding he's been impressed by France’s open doors.
"We’ve been well welcomed. They gave food and water to the kids and a place to sleep. I thank the French people," he says.
Not the same for everybody
The welcome for those coming from Ukraine has been impressive, with offers of aid pouring in from all over the country.
It is in contrast to the way Afghans feeling the Taliban were treated last year, when President Emmanuel Macron warned of the need for France to protect itself against "major irregular migratory flows".
Macron later said his statements were taken out of context, but the contrast remains, also with refugees who arrived even earlier.
Emmanuel Ollivier, the director of France’s Salvation Army, which is working at Ukrainian refugee centre in Paris, says it is important to help everyone, and not take away resources from other refugees, who he calls "forgotten asylum seekers".
This is the title of a report his organisation contributed to last year.
"We’re talking about Sudanese, Afghans – communities that maybe have fewer direct links with our society, but that doesn’t mean we should forget them," he says.
"We are seeing differences in housing, and access to documents. Before these refugees were not a priority, and now it’s even worse."
Ollivier's own employees are starting to question what they see as a double standard.
He points to the situation Calais, in northern France, where city officials have provided food and shelter for Ukrainians planning to cross the channel to the UK, but have ignored scores of other refugees from other countries who have been living in tents there.
- French charity in Calais calls for 'Ukrainian' shelters to be opened to other exiles
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"These are people who have been here for years and are living in very difficult situations," says Ollivier.
"In our line of work, there is the concept of prioritising vulnerability. It’s not about numbers, but individually, how do we take care of those who are suffering the most."
Temporary refugees
Oksana is hoping her daughter will be able to go to school soon and start a more normal life in France. The war and the journey have been hard on her.
"When she hears an unknown noise, she says it’s Putin that is throwing bombs, we need to go hide, and I say no, it’s a helicopter, don't worry," says Oksana, who is hoping they will not need to stay in France very long.
"I hope I will return home in two months, maximum. Because my husband is there, and my parents. We hope we'll go home right away."
Like most men in Ukraine, her husband could not leave the country, and her parents stayed behind to care for her sick grandmother.
Her husband’s parents stayed because they have a big house and three dogs and four cats, and they did not want to leave.
Oksana left everything behind, "but we've understood that to live, you don't need much: your child, a backpack, your documents. That's enough to live".
This story was originally produced for the Spotlight on France podcast, episode 71. Listen here.
