MINSK, 28 July (BelTA) - UN Special Rapporteur on the human rights of migrants Felipe Gonzalez Morales urged Poland to review its legislation on migrants as he gave a press conference following his visit to Belarus and Poland, BelTA has learned.
“I urge Poland to review its legislation and provide access to asylum procedures,” the special rapporteur said.
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 I hope that these amendments to the legislation will either be repealed or not passed,” Felipe Gonzalez Morales said.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.
