“It’s unacceptable that an EU country is forcing people, many fleeing war and oppression, back into what can only be described as hellish conditions in Belarus,” said Lydia Gall, senior Europe and Central Asia researcher at Human Rights Watch. “The unlawful pushbacks of migrants to Belarus and subsequent abuse they face there stands in stark contrast to Poland’s open door policy to people fleeing the war in Ukraine.”
The humanitarian crisis on the Poland-Belarus border began in 2021, with severe ill-treatment of migrants and asylum seekers by border forces on both sides. Hundreds of people from countries including Iraq, Syria, Iran, Yemen, Afghanistan, and Cuba attempting to seek asylum in the EU end up trapped in the inhospitable border area between the two countries.
Between March and May, Human Rights Watch conducted phone interviews with nine migrants, including families with children and single men, a human rights expert, and activists. Human Rights Watch also interviewed representatives of two border guard stations and two detention centers for foreigners in Poland.
People interviewed said that Polish border guards had pushed them back to Belarus in March and April, sometimes violently, and without due process, despite their pleas for asylum. On the Belarusian side, people reported violence, inhuman and degrading treatment and other forms of coercion by Belarusian border guards. Vulnerable groups, including families with children, older people, and people with health issues were among those summarily pushed back to Belarus.
Human Rights Watch documented similar abuses, including violence and use of force by Polish and Belarusian border officials, in a November 2021 report.
Commanders at two border guard stations in Poland in May confirmed they summarily push people back, citing an October 2021 Polish law that permits the removal of foreigners from Polish territory to Belarus. The commanders said that as there is no formal readmission agreement with Belarus, guards simply take migrants and asylum seekers to the razor wire fence at the border and order them to go back. One commander said that when people are caught close to the fence, border guards “invite” them to go back.
People interviewed said they had been trapped in the area between the two border fences, as well as inside Polish territory, being stranded in forests, wandering through swamps and rivers in freezing temperatures for days and weeks without food or water, and drinking swamp water to survive. When Polish border guards caught them, interviewees said, the guards ignored their pleas for asylum, took them back to the border without due process, and forced them to cross back to Belarus.
“When the border guards came, we asked for asylum and showed them papers where we had written ‘asylum’ in Polish and English,” a 23-year-old Kurdish man from Iraq said. “They [border guards] told us ‘You don’t need those papers’ and threw them away.”
On two occasions, people said, Polish border guards beat them with batons, and kicked and pushed them before forcing them back to Belarus. Other people said, though, that Polish border guards provided them water, food, clothes and diapers.
People gave harrowing accounts of violence, death, rape, extortion, theft, and restrictions on freedom of movement by Belarusian border guards. Following a Polish pushback on March 9, a 30-year-old man from Yemen said, that Belarusian border guards forced him and three others from Yemen and Iraq to stand in knee-high water in a river for an hour in freezing temperatures, ridiculing them, then forcing them at gunpoint to swim across the river to Lithuania. One man drowned while another was swept away by the river and never found.
Three migrants and a Polish human rights expert, described grave violations in a makeshift warehouse that was used for Belarus’ Bruzgi camp, including a gang rape, beatings, and inhuman living conditions.
In contrast, at another section of the Polish border, over three million people fleeing the war in Ukraine have arrived in the country since February 24, often aided by Polish border guards and volunteers.
While Polish volunteers at the Poland-Ukrainian border have been heralded as heroes, at least five activists have been prosecuted for providing humanitarian assistance to stranded migrants and asylum seekers from the Middle East, Asia and Africa at Poland’s border with Belarus. The activists are facing bogus charges for organizing illegal immigration, a crime punishable by up to eight years in prison. Polish authorities in September effectively banned access to the border area for humanitarian aid workers, journalists, and human rights observers.
Polish authorities have an obligation to prevent further deaths and suffering, and should ensure access to the asylum procedure and allow humanitarian aid workers and independent observers access to the currently restricted border area, Human Rights Watch said. Poland and Belarus should immediately halt ping-pong pushbacks and investigate abuses, and hold those responsible to account.
Poland’s summary collective expulsions, or pushbacks, violate the right to asylum and EU law, including the Charter of Fundamental Rights, and create a risk of chain refoulement – return to possible abuse in their countries of origin, contrary to international refugee law.
The European Commission has failed to speak publicly about Poland’s responsibility for the abuses at its border, or to clearly call on Poland to stop banning media and humanitarian groups from areas where abuses are taking place, and prosecuting volunteers.
Belarus’ abuse of people at its border amounts at least to inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment, and may in some cases constitute torture, in violation of Belarus’ international legal obligations. The authorities should immediately halt the abusive practices and hold those responsible to account.
“To prevent further deaths, abuse and suffering, Polish authorities should immediately stop pushbacks to Belarus,” Gall said. “Access to the asylum system in Poland shouldn’t depend on a person’s skin color, nationality, or religion.”