Brussels, 13 January, LETA – AP. Latvia, Lithuania and Poland continue to use “dubious methods” to prevent illegal immigrants trying to enter Belarus and deny access to aid organizations trying to help migrants stranded in border areas, UN refugees and European Union (EU) states on Thursday officials.
Last year, about 8,000 illegal immigrants entered Latvia, Lithuania and Poland crossing the Belarusian border. Many of them were from Iraq. Many thousands more were stranded at the border with Belarus. However, with the onset of winter, attempts to cross the border have diminished.
“Even in this dangerous and difficult situation facing these three EU member states, they need laws that do not accept and legalize the repatriation of migrants,” EU Home Affairs Commissioner Ilva Johansson said to members of the European Parliament (EP).
The word ‘rejection’ in Europe is mainly used to refer to the forced return of migrants across international borders, while denying them the right to seek asylum. Brussels argues that such “rejection” of migrants is considered illegal under EU law and international agreements on asylum seekers.
At the same time, Ms Johansson did not explain why the European Commission (EC) did not take action against the three countries for the alleged violations she mentioned.
The commissioner said tensions at the border had eased significantly and the EU had helped repatriate some 5,000 illegal immigrants from the Belarusian capital, Minsk, but migrants were still in the woods at the border.
“People still have the right to seek asylum, they still have the right to access the asylum process. We must still be true to our values and our agreement,” Johansone said.
As part of an extensive hybrid attack on the regime of Belarusian dictator Alexander Lukashenko, efforts have been made since last spring to send thousands of illegal immigrants from Belarus to Latvia, Lithuania and Poland, most of them as tourists from Iraq.
Lithuania and Poland declared a state of emergency on the border with Belarus and changed their asylum laws to make it more difficult for illegal immigrants who managed to cross the border to stay in EU countries.
Poland has also passed new laws banning people who do not live, work or study there.
“Rejection and other human rights abuses continue at the EU’s borders with Belarus,” said Sofia Magenis, head of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees’ (UNHCR) European Office.
She said UNHCR and other relief groups were still denied access to the border, although such access had been repeatedly called for to help migrants.
Magenisa said that according to Polish statistics, 200 people were denied access to the border area last week, but more than 3,000 people in total. She revealed that NGO workers and journalists who had been trying to enter the border area in recent days had been detained, deprived of their telephones and escorted out of the area.
“Several ministers from these particular countries have said in recent days that they intend to continue the current practice,” Magenisa said.
She added that changes to the asylum system “do not comply with international refugee law”.
Last week, Doctors Without Borders, an international humanitarian organization, said teams deployed to Poland’s border with Belarus had fled the country after being repeatedly denied access to migrants and refugees they went to help.
The organization said it had been trying to get permission to access the border area for three months.
At the same time, the decisive action shown by Warsaw in particular seems to have disrupted Lukashenko’s authoritarian regime’s hybrid war operation against the EU, which would otherwise have escalated into another bloc-wide migration crisis.
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