Photo by Wojtek Radwanski
The humanitarian crisis
The humanitarian crisis at the Polish-Belorussian border has been going on for some time. Much has been written about the push backs both by the Polish and Belorussian border guards as well as about human rights activists being arrested by Polish authorities for assisting asylum seekers. Agnieszka Holland even made a movie about the situation at the border. If you haven't watched Zielona Granica (The Green Frontier), please do so.
Given so much coverage of the situation at the border, I will not belabor this point. Suffice it to say that asylum seekers are dying in the forest without access to a due process of asylum.
Asylum suspension plan
Czasowe zawieszenie wniosków azylowych wprowadzono w maju w Finlandii. Jest odpowiedzią na wojnę hybrydową wypowiedzianą całej Unii (w tym przede wszystkim Polsce) przez reżimy w Moskwie i Mińsku polegającej na organizowaniu masowych przerzutów ludzi przez nasze granice. Prawo do…
— Donald Tusk (@donaldtusk) October 13, 2024
This week the issue of the asylum seekers intensified at Donald Tusk, the Prime Minister of Poland, announced that he will temporary suspend right to asylum. “I will demand this, I will demand recognition in Europe for this decision,” he said.
Access to asylum has been de facto suspended for a long time by the previous government. So one wonders if Mr. Tusk is just supporting the status quo.
Criticism of the proposals are coming from different corners: foreign media, and more than 60 international NGOs, including Amnesty International and the Auschwitz-Birkenau Foundation. In an open letter, the coalition of NGOs criticised Mr. Tusk's plan, saying that fundamental rights and freedoms were not fodder for discussion or political bargaining. “It is thanks to them [rights to asylum] that thousands of Polish women and men found shelter abroad in the difficult times of communist totalitarianism,” it read.
Migration scholars have spoken as well. The Center for Migration Studies at the Warsaw University prepared a report on migration policy, comissioned by the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Administration (MSWiA).
Sadly, the researchers talked solely with representatives of public institutions.
Nothing about them without them!
Where are the asylum seekers and migrants and their allies in these discussions? Unless I am totally out of touch, I do not see migrants who are already in Poland speaking to advocate for their fellow migrants stranded at the border. I also don't see any representatives of various diasporas residing in Poland speaking on the issue. Where are the Ukrainians who received such generous welcome in Poland when they had to flee war?
I am reminded of the time when undocumented students in the United States took action and catapulted themselves into the center of one of the nation’s fiercest debates to form an unlikely, yet powerful, political voice. From the DREAM Act, to DACA, to deportation and policing, undocumented organizers ushered in a new era of political activism, shaping policies, influencing elections, and sparking national conversations about exclusion and belonging.
I know many readers will say, Poland is not the United States, but this kind of activism by and among migrants, documented and undocumented, started small. In Poland, it too has to start somwhere. Local NGOs talk a lot about empowering migrants, but I see no evidence of empowering them to fight for their and their fellow migrants' rights.
For now
Everything is about them without them!
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