For several months, thousands of migrants have been stranded at the border between Poland and Belarus. The European Union accuses the Belarusian authorities and their Russian ally of having deliberately created this crisis situation in retaliation for the sanctions imposed after the crackdown on the 2020 protests against the re-election of President Alexander Lukashenko. Minsk denies any
instrumentalisation.
Cécile Coudriou, president of Amnesty International France, denounces on the contrary “a trip to hell” knowingly organized by Lukashenko and calls for respect by all for universal human rights. She expresses herself here freely.
At the gates of Europe, until these last days, human beings had only grass for only food and had to drink water found in puddles. Trapped, with women and children, in the freezing cold of Belarusian forests, without assistance or witnesses. At least 11 people died from hypothermia. Faced with international condemnation, 2,000 of them would have – the conditional is required, the information coming only from the Belarusian authorities – have been sheltered in a hangar since. At least 430 Iraqi people have been returned to Erbil and Baghdad.
How did we come to such a summit of inhumanity on the borders between Poland, Latvia, Lithuania and Belarus? First, because the Belarusian leader Lukashenko knowingly decided to organize a direct trip to hell for people already in distress in their own country, in Syria or in Afghanistan for example. Then because Poland, Latvia, Lithuania but also the other countries of the European Union choose to renounce the founding values of Europe and their international commitments in favor of respect for human rights. Faced with the arrival of a few thousand people at their borders, they reacted as if it were an invasion!
The establishment of a state of emergency in Poland, Latvia and Lithuania is a ridiculously disproportionate measure. It must be lifted because it is in no way a “danger to the nation”. Few voices are raised within the European Union itself against the concrete consequences of such a decision: the obstruction of press freedom and humanitarian aid. The state of emergency makes it possible to deny access to the border to journalists, civil society and NGOs. It is therefore almost impossible to document the situation on the ground. Amnesty International was nevertheless able to investigate, in particular using digital means, on a group of 32 Afghans and we alerted, as early as September 2, to the illegal refoulements operated by Poland.
“Poland, Latvia and Lithuania have acted and still act as if they were at war with enemies, when they are destitute families, pushed by Belarusian soldiers to try to cross this border.”
Cecile CoudriouAmnesty International France
Wall and barbed wire with razor blades, armed guards, day and night stalking, ill-treatment, this is what these exiled people are facing today. The measures taken by these states are both unworthy of European values and contrary to international human rights law. This right, built over decades to better protect the human person, is scuttled by such acts, with the complicity of the other countries of the European Union.
Amnesty International’s position is clear: forced refoulements, which have already cost so many lives, are prohibited by international law in the Mediterranean Sea as in the forests of Poland or Belarus. People trapped at the border must therefore be able to enter the territory of the European Union, so that their individual situation is examined. The European Commission must facilitate a series of solidarity measures, including the relocation of people in exile to other EU countries and the opening of legal and secure channels to avoid these situations of extreme danger. It is also essential to thoroughly revise the Dublin regulation, which obliges you to submit an asylum application in the first country of arrival and therefore goes against a fair distribution of reception within the Europe.
In France, the upcoming presidential campaign is conducive to all abuses on the migration issue and some candidates or political leaders, as well as some media, are participating in an escalation of ever harsher and unworthy statements. Designating a scapegoat responsible for all our ills, targeting people who are fragile and unable to defend themselves with the same media weapons, is a strategy as old as the world in politics. But this keeps us further away from our values and respect for international law, it is damaging our societies.
Here again, it is urgent to come to your senses and to call for calm. This situation is far from being a migration crisis. No, migration to Europe is not an unmanageable threat. No, we are not at war but in the rule of law which must be able to offer concrete solutions without stirring up fears. Politicians would do well to draw inspiration from civil society which is mobilizing in support of exiled people whose rights are trampled today, in Calais, Briançon, Poland, Greece, the Mediterranean and elsewhere.
This instrumentalization and contempt for human life has lasted too long. We cannot tolerate exiled people being used as pawns on a political spectrum. At our borders as everywhere else, universal human rights are not negotiable.