European court calls on Poland to provide relief to Afghans camped on Belarus border

The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) has issued interim measures calling on Poland and Latvia to provide “food, water, clothing, adequate medical care and, if possible, temporary shelter” to groups of Afghans and Iraqi Kurds stuck on their respective borders with Belarus.

The Strasbourg court also made clear, however, that its measures “should not be understood as requiring that Poland or Latvia let the applicants enter their territories”. States “have the right…to control entry, residence and expulsion of aliens”.

In Poland’s case, a group of Afghan nationals has for around 17 days been living on the border, with Polish security services preventing them from crossing and Belarusian guards stopping them from turning back.

The Polish government insists that the group is made up of economic migrants that are on Belarusian territory, and therefore the responsibility of Minsk. But others, including the UN’s refugee agency and Poland’s human rights commissioner, say the Afghans have requested asylum and should therefore be admitted to Poland.

Adding to the confusion, some Polish opposition figures have claimed that the Afghans are actually camped, at least partially, on the Polish side of the border. OKO.press, an investigative news website, has also made the same claim, using recent satellite imaging as evidence.

The Polish border guard and government, however, insist that the group is in Belarus. “The immigrants are on the Belarusian side,” tweeted deputy interior minister Maciej Wąsik today. “Opposition MPs coming to the border [to support the Afghans] are on the side of Lukashenko.”

Poland has accused Belarusian president Aleksander Lukashenko of deliberately bringing people from the Middle East to Belarus and then helping them cross the border. The Baltic states of Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia, as well as the European Commission, have made similar accusations.

This week, the Polish government dispatched a convoy of aid to Belarus, intended for those camped on the border. But it says that Minsk has refused to allow the convoy to enter its territory.

It remains unclear if and how Poland will comply with the ECHR’s interim measures. The government insists it cannot unilaterally pass supplies to the Afghans in Belarus (which is not a signatory to the European Convention on Human Rights). Border guards have prevented Polish opposition MPs from doing so themselves.

Grzegorz Kukowka, spokesman for the District Bar Council in Warsaw, told Polsat News this evening that he cannot imagine a situation in which “the government of any state does not implement interim measures ordered by the ECHR”.

While saying that he was “very satisfied” with the court’s approach, Kukowska added that it will be necessary to wait until it issues its substantive justification for the decision before knowing more.

Meanwhile, human rights organisations have warned that the situation of the Afghans on the border is deteriorating. The group has had little to eat and has been drinking water from nearby streams.

According to the Ocalenie Foundation, a Polish NGO that helps refugees and migrants, one member of the group, a 52-year-old woman, needs urgent medical care. Her situation is “critical” and she “may soon die in front of her five children”, claims the foundation.

It adds that “twelve of the [group] are seriously ill. They do not have potable water. They have not been given anything to eat since yesterday”.

Main image credit: Grzegorz Dabrowski / Agencja Gazeta

Daniel Tilles

Daniel Tilles is editor-in-chief of Notes from Poland. He has written on Polish affairs for a wide range of publications, including Foreign Policy, POLITICO Europe, EUobserver and Dziennik Gazeta Prawna.