Human rights groups urge Poland to stop facilitating US deportations to Ukraine

May 14, 2026 | Law, Society

Two leading NGOs, Amnesty International and Human Rights First, have urged Poland to stop helping the US deport people to Ukraine through Polish airports and territory. They say that sending people into a war zone is a violation of international law.

According to the NGOs’ findings, US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) conducted two operations – one in November 2025, the other in March 2026 – to send over 50 people to Ukraine through Poland.

That prompted Amnesty and Human Rights First to send a letter to Poland’s foreign and interior ministers about the issue in mid-April, since when a further ICE flight containing an unknown number of people being sent to Ukraine landed at Rzeszów Jasionka Airport.

Since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, Poland has become the primary hub for people and equipment going in and out of Ukraine.

“Poland has stood by Ukraine’s side since Russia began its war of aggression, providing temporary protection to nearly 1 million Ukrainian refugees,” noted Anna Błaszczak-Banasiak, director of Amnesty International Poland.

The fact that Poland is now involved in “forcibly transferring Ukrainians into an active war zone, where missiles strike nationwide, shocks the conscience and violates international law”, added Uzra Zeya, CEO of Human Rights First.

“Poland should play no role in these unlawful operations that rip families apart, divide communities and put people’s lives at risk,” she added. The NGOs note that, under international law, Poland has an obligation not to expel or return people to places where their lives or freedom could be at risk.

 

Amnesty and Human Rights First pointed to a report in March by CNN, which spoke to some of those who had been on the deportation flights.

“The group was flown to Poland and transported to the Ukrainian border by US officials who then handed them over to Polish officials who escorted them across the border,” wrote CNN.

It noted the case of one deportee who had entered the US legally with his partner under the Biden-era Uniting for Ukraine humanitarian programme. While his partner had her stay extended once the initial two-year term expired, his application remained “pending” for over a year before he was arrested by ICE and deported.

Amnesty and Human Rights First addressed the issue in a letter to Polish foreign minister Radosław Sikorski and interior minister Marcin Kierwiński on 17 April.

They warned that “forcibly sending individuals to an active war zone violates the[ir] rights” and “urged your government to uphold its international commitments to uphold non-refoulement and to reject the Trump administration’s cruel and inhumane mass removal campaign”.

Non-refoulement is a principle of international law prohibiting the deportation of people to a country where there life or freedom is threatened.

As the Polish authorities have not responded to the letter, the NGOs have now decided to make it public. The Polish government has so far made no public comment on the issue.

Poland itself has since last year stepped up deportations of foreigners who are in Poland unlawfully or have committed other crimes while in the country.

In 2025, Poland forcibly removed just over 2,100 foreigners, almost twice as many as in the previous year. Over half of the deportees, 1,150 of them, were Ukrainians, who are by far Poland’s largest immigrant group.

In one high-profile incident last year, the Polish authorities sought to deport 57 Ukrainians and six Belarusians involved in criminal behaviour at a concert in Warsaw’s National Stadium by Belarusian rapper Max Korzh.


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Main image credit: Grzegorz Krzyżewski/BRPO (under CC BY-SA 4.0)

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