Poland accused of pushing migrants back to Belarus

Poland has been accused of pushing migrants back across its border with Belarus in breach of international law, as Europe continues to try to combat pressure it claims has been manufactured by Russia.

Human Rights Watch claims that Polish authorities have been “unlawfully, and sometimes violently, forcing people trying to enter the country back to Belarus”.

The European Union says Belarus and Russia have “weaponised” migrants by systematically bringing people to the border and encouraging them to illegally cross into the EU.

The number of attempts by migrants to cross Europe’s eastern border tripled between January and November to more than 15,000, compared to the same period last year.

That includes hundreds of migrants from Ethiopia, Somalia and Syria, according to data from the EU’s border agency.

Poland’s 400 kilometre-long border with Belarus runs through remote and difficult to patrol terrain. In places, the border bisects the primeval Białowieża Forest.

Access to parts of the border has been restricted. This week the Polish government extended a “temporary ban” on entering a “buffer zone” along a 60 kilometre border.

Journalists and NGOs have complained that restrictions have made it difficult to independently monitor and verify conditions for migrants.

Human Rights Watch says many of the asylum seekers it spoke to alleged they had been pushed back by Polish border guards before eventually managing to slip into Poland.

HRW argues that pushbacks endanger migrants’ lives. Fourteen people are thought to have died trying to cross the Belarus-Polish border so far this year.

A spokesperson for the Polish government told Euronews that “human rights are a priority”, adding: “”The situation on the eastern border of the EU is exceptional where dictatorial regimes organise pressure to destabilise the EU.”

On Wednesday, the European Commission published new guidelines raising the possibility of disapplying the UN’s Refugee Convention obligation to accept asylum seekers.

“The persistent threat at these external borders and the effects that it has on the security of the [European] Union and on the Member States in question, constitutes an exceptional and very serious situation.”

Repeatedly asked whether the European Union was condoning pushbacks by Poland and other EU countries, the European Security Commissioner, Henna Virkkunen, insisted that “fundamental rights and human rights has to be always respected when we are also putting in place these exceptional measures”.

She added: “They may limit the right to asylum, but it has to happen in very strict conditions and legal limits.

Any restrictions would “have to be truly exceptional, temporary, proportionate, and for clearly defined cases”.

Poland’s Interior Minister, Tomasz Siemoniak, said this morning that the EU “recognises our arguments regarding the protection of the border”.

Lithuania and Latvia also border Belarus and have faced similar accusations of pushbacks. Finland, with a 1,300 kilometre border with Russia, passed an emergency migration law in the summer. Amnesty International called it a “green light” to pushbacks.

The European Commission says the objective is to “strengthen EU security and counter the weaponisation of migration” backed up by €170 million in new funding. Part of that money will be used for beefing up “electronic surveillance”, drones and enhanced border patrols.

In response to claims by Human Rights Watch, a spokesperson for the Polish Interior Ministry said in a statement that its “Border Guard officers serving at the Belarusian border use adequate and proportional measures to effectively prevent irregular border crossing attempts and to protect their own security in threatening situations”.

He also said: “Poland adopts measures that are deemed necessary to ensure the security of the state border, which also doubles as the external border of the European Union.”