UN rapporteur condemns Poland’s pushbacks of migrants to Belarus

Poland pushed migrants back to Belarus regardless of the time of day and weather conditions, UN Special Rapporteur on the human rights of migrants Felipe Gonzalez Morales told a press conference on 28 July, BelTA has learned.

“The migrants who crossed the border in unauthorized places were detained and forcibly removed from the territory of Poland. In practice, migrants who are caught crossing the border outside of official checkpoints are taken to border posts. If applicable, the border service issues an order to send them back in accordance with the provision of the law on foreigners,” Felipe Gonzalez Morales said.

He said that he found out quite the opposite from Polish border guards: “These [pushbacks] are carried out at the most convenient moment in order to avoid detection by Belarusian border guards. It is done regardless of the time of day and weather conditions. Sometimes pushbacks are carried out at night because of this.” Pregnant women and children were often among such migrants.

Felipe Gonzalez Morales urged Poland to review its legislation on migrants. According to him, he received information that requests for international protection in Poland were repeatedly ignored by Polish border guards. He also expressed concern about new legislation in Poland that legalizes pushback practices. “As described in my statement, [it is] about a series of provisions and amendments to legislation that make it possible to pushback migrants from the territory of Poland. I tried to address this issue at the level of the two reports I submitted last year and this June. In both reports I addressed issues of local legislation that tries to legitimize pushback practices. I hope that these amendments to the legislation will either be repealed or not passed,” Felipe Gonzalez Morales said.

He also drew attention to the fact that migrants in Poland are kept in closed-type institutions run by the Polish Border Guard Service. Although local legislation allows this, it also provides for the possibility of applying measures alternative to detention in closed-type facilities. Nevertheless, Polish courts regularly send people detained on the Polish-Belarusian border to closed-type institutions or people are simply held directly on the border.