HFHR concerned at the refusal of entry for asylum seekers in Poland

HFHR has sent a letter to the Minister of the Interior and Administration Mariusz Błaszczak with regard to unlawful denial of entry to foreigners seeking international protection in Poland (mostly Tajiks and Chechens).

 In HFHR’s opinion, such practice exemplifies an infamous policy to push people seeking protection away from European borders, which can currently be observed, for example, in Hungary, Bulgaria and Macedonia. This situation is alarming in in light of the worsening human rights situation in Chechnya and Tajikistan.

 With regard to Minister Błaszczak’s statements that Chechens are not refugees, HFHR indicated that determination whether a foreigner is a refugee or not takes place in the course of individual proceedings in a particular case. In such proceedings, the validity of the foreigner’s declared fear of persecution is examined.

According HFHR, it is outrageous that Poland, whose citizens many times in history have sought refuge abroad, now refuses to protect people who are exposed to similar repression by their governments.

Moreover, according to HFHR, linking the phenomena of refugees and terrorism is completely unjustified. Since 90s, tens of thousands of refugees have come to Poland, mainly from Chechnya, and they did not cause any serious threat. In contrast, the terrorist attacks that occurred in the countries of Western Europe were organized mostly by citizens of those countries, not refugees.