A Refugee is a Refugee is … a Refugee? Differential Treatment of Persons in Need of Protection and Non-discrimination Law

After the Russian attack on Ukraine millions of people were forced to leave in order to seek refuge in neighbouring countries, including European Union (EU) member states. While the EU asylum policy in the last decades has been mainly characterised by deterrence and containment, responses to the Ukrainian displacement differed and with the activation of the Temporary Protection Directive (TPD) immediate and unbureaucratic protection was granted to Ukrainian refugees. While the preferential treatment of Ukrainians compared to other groups of forcibly displaced persons was widely embraced, questions about discrimination and the applicability of non-discrimination norms arose quickly. This article seeks to discuss the differential treatment of Ukrainians in light of the applicable non-discrimination frameworks provided by human rights law. It aims to contribute thereby to the necessary debate on how to reconcile non-discrimination rules with current political tendencies in the field of immigration and the protection of persons in need.