The EU has poured millions into Poland’s border enforcement — even as human rights groups accuse Warsaw of illegal pushbacks.

Summary

Poland is facing accusations of widespread human rights abuses at its Belarus border, including violent pushbacks of migrants who are later subjected to torture by Belarusian forces.

Despite these allegations, the EU allocated €52 million to Poland for border enforcement. Prime Minister Donald Tusk has maintained harsh migration policies, refusing to implement the EU Migration Pact requirements.

Rights groups warn that Brussels’ reluctance to confront Poland sets a dangerous precedent, with Oxfam stating: “The EU must stop bankrolling this pushback policy.”

  • unexposedhazard@discuss.tchncs.deEnglish
    42·
    4 hours ago

    This is not some super fresh disputed news topic, its well documented and has been happening everywhere on the eastern european borders for years. I have friends and family who have personally seen the violence inflicted by the soldiers and police that carry out these pushbacks with batons and attack dogs and guns. There is plenty of victim witnesses and video evidence.

    • Hikuro-93@lemmy.caEnglish
      31·
      4 hours ago

      Now your personal accounting based on proximity to the matter is something I believe more than mainstream media.

      Thank you for your perspective, as that sort of behavior by the border law enforcement is not correct.

      • unexposedhazard@discuss.tchncs.deEnglish
        2·
        3 hours ago

        Individual experience carries little weight in my opinion. The evidence does and there is plenty of it and many articles over the years covering it: https://www.euronews.com/my-europe/2022/12/08/culture-of-impunity-across-eu-over-violence-against-migrants-ngo-warns

        The second edition of the “Black Book of Pushbacks” compiled by the Border Violence Monitoring Network (BVMN) documents more than 1,635 testimonies of human rights violations affecting almost 25,000 people over the past six years.

        They recount being beaten, kicked, humiliated through forced undressing, threatened with a firearm, arbitrarily detained and subjected to inhuman treatment inside a police station before being illegally pushed back both at the EU’s external borders and from deep within the territory of the bloc’s member states.

        BVMN meanwhile described itself as “concerned with the growing number of countries using disputed border regions, and so-called ‘neutral zones’ or ‘no-mans lands’ as a location of torture and inhuman treatment against people-on-the-move.”

        At least 17 people died between September and New Year’s Eve 2021 at the border between Belarus and Poland after being stranded in one such no man’s land by authorities on both sides of the border.

        Euronews is a company under majority ownership of the Hungarian dictator Victor Orban, so if even they report it this way im pretty confident the evidence is quite damning.

        For good measure some AP https://apnews.com/article/europe-treaties-united-nations-europe-european-mass-migration-crisis-698431db3975c8e5e018400cbad03a35