- Polish law enforcement is unlawfully, and sometimes violently, forcing people trying to enter the country back to Belarus without considering their protection needs.
- Poland’s inhumane and illegal pushbacks of people seeking safety fly in the face of its duties under national and EU law and basic humanity.
- Polish authorities should ensure access to the asylum procedure and allow aid workers and independent observers access to the currently restricted border area.
(Budapest, December 10, 2024) – Polish law enforcement is unlawfully, and sometimes violently, forcing people trying to enter the country back to Belarus without considering their protection needs, Human Rights Watch said today. Those pushed back risk serious abuse at the hands of Belarus officials or being trapped in harsh conditions in the open air that can lead to death or serious injury.
“Poland’s inhumane and illegal pushbacks of people seeking safety fly in the face of its duties under national and EU law and basic humanity,” said Lydia Gall, senior Europe and Central Asia researcher at Human Rights Watch. “As the next holder of the EU presidency, Poland should be setting an example by safeguarding the right to seek asylum at its borders and ensuring that people are treated humanely and their rights protected.”
In November 2024, Human Rights Watch conducted in-depth interviews with 22 asylum seekers currently in Poland. Seventeen of them – men, women, and one 17-year-old girl – had experienced at least one pushback by Polish border officials in 2024 before successfully entering Poland and being allowed to apply for asylum. Human Rights Watch also interviewed humanitarian, medical, and legal service providers for asylum seekers stranded in the Białowieża forest on the border between Poland and Belarus.
Asylum seekers interviewed described a consistent pattern of abuse by Polish border and law enforcement officials, including unlawful pushbacks, beatings with batons, use of pepper spray, and destruction or confiscation of their phones. Some said Polish border officials apprehended them kilometers inside Polish territory, away from the border, and summarily forced them back to Belarus without due process, even though in many cases they had explicitly asked to seek asylum.
Others said they were pushed back after being taken to a border post and coerced to sign papers they knew or found out later stated they did not want to seek asylum. Once on the Belarusian side of the border, people are often stranded and face harsh conditions in the open air, or abuse by Belarusian officials, who often force them to cross the border to Poland again. Human Rights Watch documented similar abuses by Polish and Belarusian authorities in November 2021 and June 2022.
According to We Are Monitoring, a civil society group, 87 people died near the border on both sides between September 2021 and October 2024, with 14 deaths recorded in 2024 alone. The circumstances of the deaths are not documented. A Yemeni man told Human Rights Watch that a 24-year-old Yemeni travelling companion was pushed back by Polish authorities in early October and found dead in a swamp on the Belarusian side in late October by a group on their way to the border. Human Rights Watch was unable to independently verify the information.
Humanitarian organizations assisting stranded migrants and asylum seekers in Poland said that they call the border guards when people express a desire to seek asylum. While this usually means that people are not summarily returned to Belarus, Human Rights Watch documented cases in which border officials nevertheless forcibly pushed people back.
A 28-year-old Somali woman said that after calling an association for assistance, she and 11 others were taken to a border station where they asked for asylum, but were required to sign papers they did not understand and were subsequently taken to the border and pushed through the fence.
People interviewed said that Belarusian border guards had subjected them to violence, inhuman and degrading treatment, and other forms of coercion. They said that guards had beaten them, stolen or destroyed their belongings, burned their food and supplies, and forced them to areas on the border far from where they were apprehended. One Ethiopian woman said Belarusian guards forced her to strip naked and threatened to rape her.
Eight people interviewed said that Belarusian border officials had gathered them in “camps” or collection points in the border area, along with dozens of other people, and in some cases directed them in small groups to various points along the border with Poland. Four said that Belarusian border officials transported them to the border with Lithuania, and in at least one case guards told a Yemeni man to leave the border area.
Abusive actions by Belarusian officials, including forcing people over the border into Poland, do not relieve Poland of its obligations to protect the rights of people who enter its territory and the prohibition on forcibly returning anyone to a real risk of abuse, Human Rights Watch said.
The current Polish government, in power since December 2023, reinstated an “exclusion zone” along 60 kilometers of the border with Belarus in June and increased the military presence alongside border guard forces. The no-go area, which in some areas extends two kilometers into Polish territory, prevents independent monitors and humanitarian volunteers from assisting people stranded in the dense, swampy forest. In February, the Polish government said it had pushed back over 6,000 people between early July 2023, when it started recording these actions, and the middle of January 2024.
The government also adopted legislation in July giving uniformed staff at the border broad protection from prosecution in the event of use of firearms, creating a risk of impunity for excessive use of deadly force. In October, the government announced a migration strategy, yet to enter into force, that would include the “temporary suspension of the right to asylum” due to national security reasons, claiming migration has been instrumentalized by Belarus.
Poland’s pushbacks without due process –collective expulsions – violate EU law, including the Charter of Fundamental Rights. Summary pushbacks constitute prohibited ill-treatment as does the violence people experience during these pushbacks, as affirmed by domestic and European Court of Human Rights judgments.
The EU’s new asylum and migration pact confirms the fundamental right to seek asylum. Poland should invest in screening and border procedures that ensure that the pact will be carried out in a humane and rights-respecting way.
Polish authorities should ensure access to the asylum procedure and allow aid workers and independent observers access to the currently restricted border area, Human Rights Watch said. Poland and Belarus should immediately halt pushbacks, investigate allegations of abuse by their officials, and hold those responsible to account.
The European Commission should immediately initiate infringement proceedings against Poland for violating EU asylum laws and publicly condemn and reject any efforts by Poland to suspend the right to asylum under the Migration Pact or otherwise and take further legal action against Warsaw if necessary.
“The Commission should stop ignoring Poland’s abuses at its border with Belarus and ensure that the protection of human beings and their rights is at the core of Poland’s response,” Gall said. “Allowing member states to openly flout the right to asylum undermines EU law, the rule of law, and of course the moral standing of the European Union.”
For detailed accounts, please see below.
Human Rights Watch interviewed 22 asylum seekers in Poland in November 2024: 12 men, 9 women, and one 17-year-old girl. They were from Cameroon, the Comoros, Democratic Republic of Congo, Ethiopia, Somalia, and Yemen. Pseudonyms have been used to protect their identities. Human Rights Watch also spoke with five Polish activists and a medic working in the border area.
Polish authorities refused a Human Rights Watch request to visit two border posts and speak to border commanders. They gave permission to enter the exclusion zone to see the border fence and to visit the reception center in Biała Podlaska but denied access to detention centers in Białystok and Biała Podlaska.
Polish authorities did not respond to a summary of findings and questions from Human Rights Watch. Belarusian authorities did respond but failed to answer questions about their policies and whether they had investigated alleged abuse by border officials. However, the Belarusian authorities said they had recorded 70 deaths at borders with EU countries since 2021 (23 in 2024), which they attributed to pushbacks without providing evidence to support the claims.
Among the 22 people interviewed, 17 said they had been pushed back, sometimes violently, by Polish border guards to Belarus in 2024, before successfully entering the country and applying for asylum. Thirteen said they experienced multiple pushbacks. Some identified the numbered border marker where they were pushed into Belarus.
The humanitarian crisis in the inhospitable border area between Poland and Belarus began in 2021, when Belarus began facilitating visas for third-country nationals and encouraging, even forcing, their onward travel to Poland. Human Rights Watch interviews in November indicate that the dynamics may have shifted and third-country nationals now mostly travel first to Moscow on a Russian tourist or student visa.
The previous Polish government in 2021 declared a state of emergency, erected fences topped with razor-wire along parts of its border with Belarus, and enacted legal measures to authorize summary pushbacks.
Summary Returns
For years, however, applying for asylum at Terespol, now the only official border crossing along the Poland-Belarus border, has been extremely difficult, with summary returns a longstanding problem. The Rule of Law Institute, an organization providing legal assistance to asylum seekers, told Human Rights Watch that chances of lodging claims, without access to the assistance of Polish lawyers, are low. A pregnant woman from Comoros said that she was able to apply for asylum at Terespol only after a Polish nongovernmental organization assisted her with the necessary paperwork.
Humanitarian actors at the border face intimidation and obstruction, Human Rights Watch said. Volunteers with Grupa Granica, a network of associations defending the rights of people on the move, said Polish border guards often delay them at random and at ever-changing checkpoints. A medic said it was “very common” for border guards to obstruct their work through lengthy, repeated identity and car checks.
Eli, a 25-year-old man from Somalia, said he was summarily pushed back by Polish security forces five times between April and June. Border officials destroyed his phones, pepper-sprayed him, beat his friends, and ignored his requests for asylum. He said:
The first time … we got across the border and walked one kilometer into Poland when border guards caught us. They put us in plastic zip…[ties]. They took our phones and smashed them with their batons.... They took us by military car to the borderline and opened a gate in the metal fence and told us to go back to Belarus.… [The second time] five of us were caught and they [pepper] sprayed us straight into our faces. They put us in plastic handcuffs and put us in a car and drove us to the border. They opened a gate in the fence and told us to go back to Minsk. I kept telling them in English that I wanted protection and asylum in Poland, but they just said go back to Minsk. I was still handcuffed when pushed back.
Tariq, a 24-year-old Yemeni, said he was pushed back three times between August and October 2024. He said the first two times he was caught by border guards shortly after crossing the fence. The first time, he said, they used pepper spray: “It was like smoke in my eyes, I was in pain for days.” The second time, he was beaten:
A border guard hit me with a baton in places so I couldn’t walk, on my legs mainly.… They beat me and a friend for about an hour.… I didn’t ask for asylum because even if I ask they won’t help. I just said, “I want Poland.” The border guards said, “You want Germany or France.” I said, “No, I want Poland.” Then they just put us in a car and drove us to the border and pushed us across. They took us straight to the border, no station. They had zip-tied me when they caught us so when they pushed me through the fence, I still had them on.
The third time he said someone he believed was a police officer found him, stripped him down to his underwear, and beat him:
Then another officer came and the beating stopped. They took me to the border. There were others in the car, Africans, Syrians, and we were all pushed back. There were three women in the group and one could barely stand. The female officer was kind to the injured woman. We were taken to border and pushed back through the gate. I was handcuffed with plastic this time too.
Abshir, a 25-year-old from Somalia, said he was pushed back four times in September 2024. The fourth time, on September 23, border officials forced him and two women across the border into Belarus in a swampy area:
We heard the sound of a motorbike.… They [people in uniform] put me in zip ties. They took us to a little car at border marker 437 and threw us at border marker 415. That was a swamp. They dropped me there with the girls. We had to go through the swamp. They shot at us with rubber bullets through the fence to make us walk. We walked to border marker 418 through swamp water. We begged border guards to allow us to walk on the concrete ledge by the fence but they didn’t allow us.
Anzal, a 23-year-old Somali, said that she broke her leg on her first attempt in mid-April. Border officials caught her and another woman:
I was on the Polish side in the forest. I was shouting “I broke my leg” and the Polish army came. They used an electric taser on me. I spoke to a border guard and told him I wanted a better life. They took me to border and threw me back.… They broke the charger port in my phone and my power bank. The other woman didn’t shout so she was not tasered. Polish army said “stand up” but I couldn’t. They kept telling me I didn’t break my leg and … they pulled us up and I fell back down. They put zip ties on us. After that, they put us in a car and took us eight kilometers from the place we jumped. They pushed us through a door in the fence.
A Human Rights Watch researcher saw hospital records and a scar on Anzal’s lower leg consistent with her account.
Shada, 17, from Somalia, said she was pushed back twice in April, and described getting stuck while trying to use a ladder to climb up and jump down from a razor wire fence:
I was in the forest for 40 days. I tried to cross three times and was caught twice by the Polish. The first time I had no phone. They said insulting things, they pepper-sprayed me in my eyes. There were five of us, three made it. They opened the gate and pushed us back. I was hot in the face and in pain from the spray. I rested for two days then tried again. I got stuck again and couldn’t jump. Out of the six of us, four jumped and two of us got stuck. A good border guard came, he gave me water and was nice. He asked how old I was, where I was from. He took us to a car and drove a short distance. I said I need international protection, but he just said, “No, no, I can’t.” I said I was 17. But he opened the door and pushed us back through the gate.
When Shada tried the third time, in May, she said she broke her leg with an open fracture. A Human Rights Watch researcher saw the scars and photographs of the fresh wound. Polish border guards called an ambulance and after a week in a hospital she was able to apply for asylum, she reported. She was processed as an adult because she was deemed to be an adult on the basis of a wrist x-ray, an unreliable means of assessing age. She said she had lost the photo of her birth certificate when her phone was broken and Belarusians had taken her passport.
Djoum, a 24-year-old from Cameroon, said he tried to cross five times in May and was pushed back each time.
One time they handcuffed me and then beat my foot [with a baton]. There were ten of us, two girls. There were maybe four soldiers, they beat all of us, even the girls. They took our phones, put us in the car, handcuffed, and then pushed us back through different doors in the big fence. They decide where to push you back. They beat us like animals.
Human Rights Watch spoke with two women who were pregnant and who were admitted into Poland by border guards. But a third pregnant woman, Amina, from Comoros, was pushed back with her companion in October.
I was too weak, we got across and went to the police, we begged to stay. I think they didn’t believe that I was pregnant…. They sent us back. They helped my husband pick me up to put me in the car, they took us to a door in the fence and told us to go. We begged them from the other side. My companion carried me to a military camp [in Belarus] and the soldiers there called an ambulance.
She said was eventually able to enter Poland via the official border crossing at Terespol; her companion was still in Belarus when we spoke with her.
Abusive Treatment at Border Posts
Seven people, including Eli, the 26-year-old Somali, said they were pushed back after their claims for asylum were processed at a border post.
Ali, 21, from Yemen, said he was in a group of 10 people apprehended by Polish border officials in August. By his account, they had walked 12 kilometers from the border fence:
Then border guards with dogs came. The dog bit me. They took our phones and searched our bodies and bags. They broke our phones. Then they took us to a station. It was night. We stayed there until morning, and they took my fingerprints.… They made me sign papers. The others too. I don’t know what paper it was. It was in Polish. After we signed, they showed me an Arabic paper and forced me to sign. I read only after I signed. It said go to Belarus and do not enter Poland again.… After that, they took us by car to a point very far from our starting point. They dropped us, opened the gate and told us to go.
Saynab, a 33-year-old Somali woman travelling alone, said she and nine others were pushed back in August. After walking for hours inside Poland, they were getting help from one of the associations that provides humanitarian aid when Polish border guards arrived.
They caught us and said to the volunteers “there will be no Poland.” Then they put all of us in car and drove us to a border guard station. When we got to the station, we signed the papers, they took photos and fingerprinted us. The paper said “you didn’t come to Poland” in Polish. They forced me to sign. Some signed, some didn’t.… Then they took us by car to the fence and pushed us through a door.
On her next attempt, in September, Saynab said she broke both her feet falling off the ladder used to get across coils of razor wire at the border fence. Polish border guards called an ambulance and after a period in a hospital she was able to apply for asylum. She was still in a wheelchair when interviewed and showed papers relating to her hospitalization.
Maklit, an 18-year-old Ethiopian, said that guards pushed her back five times in October. Four times she was apprehended and summarily returned to Belarus. One time, however, she was taken to a border post after an association assisted her in the forest:
They made me sign papers in Polish, I don’t know what it said. There was one in Amharic about me, I signed that. They handcuffed me very tightly.… Then they pushed me back.… I got lost, I didn’t have a phone. I got back to the Poland fence and asked to be let in, but the guard just laughed and showed me direction to the Belarus fence.
Dawit, a 24-year-old Ethiopian, was pushed back in April. He and two others “walked all night and through the next day” after crossing into Poland before they were caught by the police:
They beat us, they punched me in the face and the side. They hit one guy so hard he vomited, and they took him to the hospital. They [police] called the border guards, they handcuffed me and took me by car 10-15 minutes to a station. They told me to sign a paper in English. It said I didn’t want asylum in Poland.
Dawit said he and the other man were pushed back to Belarus.
Sumaya, a 28-year-old from Somalia, said she and 11 others were pushed back from Poland in June, despite being at a formal border station:
We were at the station for an hour. I asked for asylum in Poland, but they wouldn’t listen. The border guards only asked us to sign a paper. They just put a paper in front of me … [and] just told me to sign. So I signed. There was no interpreter, and they didn’t explain what the paper was. After, they took us to the border and pushed us back through a door in the fence.
