Around 100 migrants and refugees – mostly from Iraq – who were detained after crossing into Poland from Belarus have held a hunger protest against conditions at the holding centre they are being housed in.
The protest is the second of its kind to take place at the same centre in Wędrzyn. Poland’s deputy commissioner for human rights, who has inspected the site, says that conditions there are “unacceptable” do not fulfil the “fundamental guarantees preventing inhuman and degrading treatment”.
Hanna Machińska, Poland's deputy commissioner for human rights, said at least 400 children and 290 women are locked up in guarded detention centres and that some are denied even basic aid. Media and humanitarian access is limited to non-existent, she said.https://t.co/Wx17EQ7aSf
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A spokeswoman for Poland’s border guard, Joanna Konieczniak, confirmed to state broadcaster TVP that “around 100 people would not leave their rooms for breakfast” yesterday. However, “following talks with officers”, the detainees later began to take meals again.
She added that, during those talks, the foreigners declared that they want to be released from the centre as soon as possible and complained about the fact that their legal representatives are not in touch with them regularly. They reportedly hung signs saying “Freedom” on their doors.
Konieczniak admitted that coronavirus restrictions have prevented lawyers and aid organisations from visiting the centre. But she added that they communicate with the detainees by telephone and email.
Last November, around 100 men being held at the same facility rioted, demanding to be released, and in December a hunger protest was held against the “prison-like” conditions at another holding centre.
Poland’s so-called “centres for foreigners” have come under increasing strain since last summer amid the unpredented crisis at the border with Belarus, where tens of thousands of people – mainly from the Middle East – have been trying to cross into the European Union.
The facility in Wędrzyn – part of a military base that was converted for use as a guarded holding centre for border-crossers last August – has drawn particular concern.
Poland’s deputy commissioner for human rights, Hanna Machińska, led inspections of the site last October and in January this year. She found that it “does not fulfil the basic guarantees preventing inhuman and degrading treatment” and called the conditions “unacceptable”.
Particular concern was raised about overcrowding at the facility, where almost 600 people are being held. Machińska noted that there was an average of two square metres for each detainee, which is less than than the norm for prison facilities in Poland, where detainees have three square metres.
Her latest report also mentions the fact that razor wire remains around some parts of the facility despite her warning of “its oppressive character” and the “danger it poses” during her first visit.
The deputy commissioner acknowledged that some people may say being in the holding centre, where “it is dry and warm and there is a doctor”, is better than being stuck in the forest at the border. But detainees are still “suffering a great deal”, she told Gazeta Wyborcza.
On Monday this week, Machińska gave testimony to the European Parliament’s civil liberties committee about the situation of migrants at Poland’s border with Belarus and in holding centres, which she said are not fit-for-purpose.
The Polish authorities, however, say that they fulfil all obligations regarding the treatment of those who have crossed the border, and that safe and humanitarian conditions are provided for them at holding centres.
Main image credit: Agnieszka Sadowska / Agencja Wyborcza.pl
Agnieszka Wądołowska is deputy editor of Notes from Poland. She has previously worked for Gazeta.pl and Tokfm.pl and contributed to Gazeta Wyborcza, Wysokie Obcasy, Duży Format, Midrasz and Kultura Liberalna
