(Brussels) The European Commission on Wednesday proposed allowing Poland, Lithuania and Latvia to temporarily waive certain rules protecting the right to asylum due to the influx of migrants from Belarus, prompting criticism of ‘NGO.
These temporary measures, which respond to a request from Warsaw, Vilnius and Riga and must be endorsed by the Twenty-Seven, notably allow the three countries to extend the period of registration of asylum applications to four weeks, instead of Current maximum 10 days.
They provide for the possibility of extending to 16 weeks the time limit for examining an application-appeal included – during which applicants can be detained in centers at the border.
They make possible “rapid and simplified” procedures for returning migrants whose requests for protection have been rejected.
“We are not proposing new grounds for detention,” Home Affairs Commissioner Ylva Johansson assured at a press conference. These measures aim to give “flexibility” to the three states facing an “unprecedented” situation at the borders of Belarus, she explained, citing however a “de-escalation”.
“We are proposing a solution which takes into account all the rights of people who wish to apply for asylum in exceptional circumstances”, assured Commission Vice-President Margaritis Schinas.
These measures, for which the European Parliament is only “consulted”, are based on Article 78.3 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union, providing for the case “where one or more Member States find themselves in a situation emergency characterized by a sudden influx of third-country nationals ”.
“Fortress Europe”
According to the latest Commission figures, just under 8,000 migrants have arrived in the EU via Belarus this year: 4,285 in Lithuania, 3,255 in Poland and 426 in Latvia.
Brussels accuses Belarus of having organized these arrivals by issuing visas and bringing the arrivals to the borders of Poland and, to a lesser extent, of Lithuania, in revenge for the European sanctions against it. The situation has aroused fears in Europe of a large-scale migration crisis.
Thousands of people, mostly from Middle Eastern countries, are stuck at the border on the Belarus side.
Poland has built a barbed wire fence, massed thousands of soldiers along its 400 kilometers of border, and since September declared a state of emergency by prohibiting access to the border region. Poland is also criticized by NGOs for its policy of refoulement of migrants to Belarus, which has resulted in leaving many migrants stranded between the two countries, in very difficult conditions and in the cold.
Polish media estimate that at least a dozen people have died on both sides of the border, trying to cross this wooded area into the EU.
Lithuania, a country of 2.8 million that recorded just 81 migrant arrivals in 2020, has also started building a wall, passed a law allowing border guards to send migrants back to the other side. border, and declared a state of emergency.
The NGOs immediately condemned the Commission’s initiative. “The situation at the EU’s borders in Belarus is perfectly manageable with the current rules,” said the director of the European office of Amnesty International, Eve Geddie, indignant that the EU allows member states to “throw away to the nettles the rules for a few thousand people at its border ”.
“This proposal weakens the fundamental rights of asylum seekers and strengthens Fortress Europe, and goes against everything the EU should stand for,” said Erin McKay of Oxfam.
Social democratic MEPs also criticized a “worrying” decision. This aims “to satisfy EU governments, like Poland, who seek to use vulnerable people to promote their anti-migrant agenda,” denounced MEP Birgit Sippel (S & D).