Human Rights Watch has denounced abuses and unlawful pushbacks on the border between Poland and Belarus, calling on the Polish authorities to account for the rights of asylum seekers.
Violent unlawful pushbacks of asylum seekers are occurring on the border between Poland and Belarus, a Human Rights Watch report revealed on Tuesday.
The report, based mostly on in-depth interviews carried out in November 2024 with 22 asylum seekers, says border brokers stop individuals arriving from Belarus from making use of for asylum, even after crossing into Polish territory. This consists of circumstances the place Polish border officers arrested migrants a number of kilometers inside Poland.
Some migrants interviewed had been pressured to signal a doc, the contents of which they didn’t perceive, and had been instantly pressured to go away the nation, pushed in opposition to fences, the report claims. The migrants later found that the doc mentioned the person didn’t need to search asylum.
When returning to the Belarusian aspect of the border, individuals usually endure harsh situations outside or face abuse from Belarusian officers, who usually pressure them again into Poland, Human Rights Watch mentioned within the report.
Under worldwide legislation, third-country nationals coming into the EU have the precise to use for cover and software processes must be thought-about individually, in any other case they might be thought-about unlawful “refoulement”.
Since Donald Tusk grew to become prime minister of Poland in December 2023, a army zone has been re-established alongside a 60-kilometer stretch of the border with Belarus.
The NGO accused Polish authorities of blocking impartial monitoring and humanitarian assist for individuals stranded within the Białowieża Forest.
In February, the Polish authorities reported that it had pushed again greater than 6,000 individuals between early July 2023, when it started monitoring these actions, and mid-January 2024.
“Poland has just lately adopted a complete technique on migration, which incorporates danger administration, in addition to the granting of humanitarian visas and help for individuals in want. Human rights are a precedence for the Polish authorities, as is the security of Poles and of the Europeans,” a spokesperson for the Polish authorities instructed Euronews.
“The scenario on the japanese border of the European Union is outstanding, the place dictatorial regimes set up stress to destabilize the European Union. We are witnessing human trafficking and assaults in opposition to border guards,” the spokesperson mentioned.
“It isn’t Putin or Lukashenko who decides who will be a part of the EU,” the spokesperson added.
“Poland’s pushbacks violate nationwide and EU legal guidelines, in addition to fundamental rules of humanity,” mentioned Lydia Gall of Human Rights Watch. He urged Poland, as the following EU presidency, to set an instance by defending the rights of asylum seekers and making certain humane therapy.
A spokesperson for the European Commission mentioned it “condemns the hybrid assaults orchestrated by Russia and Belarus at our exterior borders, and it’s crucial to guard the safety and territorial integrity of our union and our residents.”
However, the spokesperson additionally acknowledged that “migration should be managed in a dignified and humane means” and that “efficient border administration on this context should be firmly rooted in respect for elementary rights”.
On Wednesday, European commissioners will current a communication on combating hybrid threats and strengthening safety on the EU’s exterior borders. This is available in response to latest actions by Belarus and Russia, which have facilitated the arrival of asylum seekers into the EU from their territories, a improvement which Brussels and member states have categorized as a “hybrid menace”.
ANNOUNCEMENTIn October, the Polish authorities introduced a migration technique, nonetheless awaiting implementation, that features a “short-term suspension of the precise to asylum” for nationwide safety causes, citing Belarus’ position in utilizing migration as a method to create “ political instability in Europe. .
By 12 December, European member states ought to current to the Commission the implementation plans of the migration pact, a set of legislative dossiers authorized over the last mandate, which is able to regulate border procedures for individuals arriving within the EU territory in search of asylum. .
