Poland outlines new rules for use of firearms at border amid escalating migration crisis

Poland’s government has proposed new rules for the use of firearms by uniformed officers amid an escalation of the security crisis at the border with Belarus. Prime Minister Donald Tusk ordered them to be prepared following the death of a soldier who was stabbed while trying to stop migrants from crossing.

The measures would remove criminal liability for the use of weapons in certain cases when officers are acting in self-defence or repelling “attacks on the border”.

“The deteriorating security situation means that the armed forces are and should be used more and more often for operational, reconnaissance and deterrence purposes,” wrote the defence ministry, which was responsible for preparing the bill.

“This means that soldiers should be equipped with personal weapons during these activities and, more importantly, should have the authority to use, if necessary, means of direct coercion and weapons,” they added, quoted by the Rzeczpospolita daily.

The bill would amend existing laws to remove liability for “a crime committed by a soldier, police or border guard officer who, in violation of the rules on the use of direct coercive measures and firearms, issues an order to use them or uses them himself in specific cases – if the situation requires immediate action”.

The new rules would apply in four specified situations. The first is in cases requiring an officer to “repel a direct and unlawful attack on the inviolability of the state border by a person who forces a crossing of the state border using a vehicle, firearm or other dangerous object”.

The second is in cases of self-defence: “to repel a direct and unlawful attack on the life, health or freedom of a soldier, police or border guard officer or other person, undertaken in the event of a direct and unlawful attack on the inviolability of the state border.”

The third relates to cases of pre-emptive self-defence in which there is a need to “prevent activities aimed directly at attacking the life, health or freedom of a soldier, police or border guard officer or other person, in the event of a direct and unlawful attack on the inviolability of the state border”.

The fourth would cover situations in which “it is necessary to confront a person who does not comply with a request to immediately abandon a weapon, explosive or other dangerous item, the use of which may threaten the life, health or freedom of that soldier”.

The rules also specify that weapons may be used “only upon prior order of the commander as a special and last resort” and “when the use of direct coercive measures is not possible due to the circumstances of the event or [when] the intended goal cannot be achieved using these measures”.

The legislation allows officers accused of improper use of weapons to request a public defender and to receive financial support for obtaining legal assistance.

Finally, the bill would introduce terminology regarding “military operations conducted on the territory of the Republic of Poland in peacetime”, which would be defined as “organised action of the armed forces carried out to ensure the external security of the state [and] not constituting training or exercises”.

The proposed legislation is due to be discussed at a meeting of the government on Wednesday. If approved by the cabinet, it would be sent for consideration by parliament, where the government has a majority in both chambers. To become law, the bill would also have to be signed by President Andrzej Duda.

In a comment on the proposed legislation, the deputy head of the Government Legislation Center (RCL), Robert Brochocki, raised concern about some of its elements.

In particular, he warned that “the protection of the inviolability of the state border, unrelated to a direct and unlawful attack on the life of a soldier or officer or any other person, does not seem to justify the violation of the much higher value good of human life”.

In an opinion for Rzeczpospolita, Radosław Baszuk, a lawyer specialising in criminal law, said that the newly proposed provisions largely relate to issues that already “fall within the current scope of necessary defence” under the law. They will therefore “not change much in the criminal law system”.

However, Baszuk expressed concern at the use of the term “other dangerous object” in the legislation. This could be very broadly interpreted, for example to include a stick found in the forest in the border area and used by someone as a walking aid, he argued.

The government has put forward the measures in response to a recent surge in attempted crossings by migrants at the border with Belarus and a series of violent attacks against Polish officers stationed there. In one case, a soldier who was stabbed with a knife through the border fence later died of his injuries.

There was also recently controversy after it emerged that three soldiers had been detained by military police after firing warning shots towards migrants seeking to cross the border. Two of them were later charged with exceeding their powers and endangering the lives of others.

Last week, the government introduced an exclusion zone banning unauthorised people from entering an area along the Belarus border. The measure is intended to improve security and to hinder the operations of people smugglers.

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Main image credit: Combat Camera Poland/Flickr (under CC BY-NC-ND 2.0)

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.