Poland: worsening restrictions and refusals of entry at the Eastern border
Published: 13 Oct 2016
This article first appeared in the Asylum Information Database (AIDA) website and was included in the European Council on Refugees and Exiles (ECRE)’s Weekly Bulletin of 2 September 2016. It has been lightly edited, and appears with permission.
A protest by approximately 150 asylum seekers, mainly of Chechen origin, who were denied entry into Poland, was recently held near the Brest crossing point of the Polish-Belarussian border.
Ongoing barriers to accessing the asylum procedure in Poland have been reported by civil society organisations including the Helsinki Foundation for Human Rights and the Association for Legal Intervention (SIP). A recent report by SIP documents systematic refusals by border guards in Brest and Terespol to allow entry to persons expressing the wish to apply for international protection.
The Helsinki Foundation for Human Rights has recently sent a letter to the Polish Minister of Interior with regard to unlawful practices of denial of entry to persons seeking international protection, coming mainly from Tajikistan and Chechnya. In relation to the latter, the position expressed by the Minister was that persons coming from Chechnya are not refugees due to the fact that they are not fleeing war.
For more information, see:
- AIDA, Poland: Access to asylum denied at the Eastern borders, 22 July 2016.
- SIP, At the border: Report on monitoring of access to the procedure for granting international protection at border crossings in Terespol, Medyka, and Warszawa-Okęcie Airport, No 2 / 2016.
- AIDA, Country Report Poland: Fourth Update, November 2015.