Gross Violations against Refugees along the Belarus-Poland Border Must Be Stopped!
12 November 2021
Thousands of refugees and immigrants are stranded under very challenging inhumane conditions along the Belarus-Poland, Belarus-Lithuania and Belarus-Latvia border line and are not allowed to cross the border. This state of affairs has been pending since July 2021. It has been reported that at least ten people lost their lives because of the harsh winter conditions. The situation of the refugees amounting to tragedy is being closely monitored by international human rights organizations as well.
İHD sent a letter to the Embassy of Poland in Ankara in order to provide for the refugees’ and immigrants’ crossing the border and their right to live in humane conditions. İHD also contacted the concerned human rights organizations, most notably FIDH, EuroMed Rights and OMCT of which the association is a member. EuroMed Rights released a press statement on the issue and its Turkish translation can be found at our website. FIDH, too, stated that it was closely following the issue through local human rights organizations. International human rights organizations reported that troops were deployed in the regions where refugees and immigrants were held and on-site inquiry could not be conducted as human rights organizations were denied access to the area.
İHD would like to share with the public its call on the concerned countries, especially the EU, and the UN to take the necessary measures and assume their responsibilities to end this human tragedy. İHD would also like to underline the necessity that instrumentalization policies towards refugees and immigrants should be put to an end, peaceful policies should be pursued by initiating conflict resolution processes in order to establish stability in regions turned into spaces of armed conflict and civil war, prominently those in the Middle East, and the conditions that force people to leave their countries should be ended. İHD urges the UN, the Council of Europe, the EU and the concerned countries to act in line with the human rights of refugees and asks them to put an end to such tragedy without delay.
Human Rights Association