Migrants trying to enter Europe via Belarus face additional obstacles. Brussels allows Poland, Latvia and Lithuania to temporarily suspend parts of the asylum legislation. Critics see it as proof that Europe is less and less committed to international refugee law.
Specifically, the three governments are allowed to take more time to register asylum applications (four weeks instead of three to ten days), to detain asylum seekers for up to 16 weeks in closed centres along the border during the first examination of their application, and to send migrants back to their country of origin more easily and quickly.
All these measures are valid for six months.
“After the pushbacks (violent evictions) in Greece and the return of migrants to penal camps in Libya, Europe is continuing to dismantle the right of asylum”, said D66-unfortunately in Europe, Sophie in ‘t Veld. ,,Instead of taking action against human rights violations, we legalise them.”
Dunja Mijatovic, Commissioner for Human Rights at the Council of Europe in Strasbourg, is also critical. Migrant rights, she says, are already being seriously violated by the ongoing state of emergency in Poland, which prevents journalists, aid workers and human rights activists from entering the border region.