End ‘double standards’ on refugees, UN expert urges Poland

Welcome for Ukrainians fleeing conflict in stark distinction with Warsaw’s remedy of different migrants and refugees, UN particular rapporteur says.

Migrants and refugees are seen queuing to receive meals on the Belarusian-Polish border
In addition to the fallout from the conflict in Ukraine, Poland has confronted makes an attempt by tens of 1000's of migrants and refugees since mid-2021 to cross its border with Belarus and enter the European Union [File: Maxim Shemetov/Reuters]

Polish authorities should cease locking up migrants close to the Belarus border and put an finish to the “very completely different” remedy of Ukrainian and non-Ukrainian refugees, the United Nations Particular Rapporteur on migrants’ rights has stated.

Felipe Gonzalez Morales on Thursday praised the actions of Polish authorities and residents who've given safety and help to greater than two million Ukrainian refugees and lodged them of their properties because the begin of Russia’s invasion in February.

However non-Ukrainian nationals fleeing that nation have confronted difficulties acquiring residence permits and correct shelter and haven't loved the identical authorized protections, he stated.

Some folks fleeing the conflict have been from third international locations, usually within the Center East, Asia or Africa, who had been learning or working in Ukraine on the time of the invasion.

“I word with concern that this double normal strategy has led to emotions of being discriminated amongst third nation nationals,” Morales stated in a press release following a visit to Poland and Belarus on July 12-25.

There was no fast touch upon Morales’s assertion from Poland’s authorities or the Polish border guard service.

Belarus border disaster

In addition to the fallout from the conflict in Ukraine, Poland has confronted makes an attempt by tens of 1000's of migrants and refugees since mid-2021 to cross its border with Belarus and enter the European Union.

The disaster prompted Poland to arrange an emergency zone, construct a metal border barrier and introduce a marketing campaign of pushbacks. In the meantime, estimates recommended a minimum of 20 migrants and refugees have died within the space’s freezing forests and bogs.

Morales stated these migrants and refugees, a lot of whom are from the Center East and Afghanistan, had been “routinely” being locked up in de facto detention centres in Poland close to the border, together with youngsters, in violation of worldwide humanitarian legislation. He stated he had personally visited one of many centres and had seen dozens of relations with youngsters lodged there.

“I additionally known as on Poland to make use of migratory detention as a measure of final resort to discontinue the follow of migratory detention of youngsters,” he informed a digital information briefing.

“I urge related authorities to instantly launch unaccompanied youngsters, youngsters with their households, pregnant ladies and people with psychological situations into open amenities,” he stated.

Poland and different EU member states have accused Belarus of engineering the disaster by flying folks in from the Center East and pushing them to try to illegally cross into the bloc in revenge for Western sanctions imposed on Minsk after a disputed August 2020 election that handed longtime President Alexander Lukashenko a sixth time period in workplace.

Minsk has denied these allegations.

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