The pro-migrant NGO Pro Asyl has called on the German government to stop deporting migrants to neighbouring Poland, arguing the country treats asylum seekers poorly.
Karl Kopp, Head of Europe at Pro Asyl, demanded the German government stop deportations to Poland now that the country has begun to take in deported migrants under the European Union’s Dublin agreement, which had previously been suspended due to the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
“Poland has a massive rule of law problem, and the asylum reception conditions there are contrary to human rights. Asylum seekers are systematically locked up in camps that are worse than prisons – simply because they have filed an asylum application,” Kopp said in a statement, the European Union-funded website InfoMigrants reports.
“In view of the Polish government’s systematic violations of European and international law, asylum seekers must not be sent back to such conditions under any circumstances,” Kopp said.
On their website, the NGO highlighted a migrant centre in the village of Wędrzyn, which lies near the German border with Poland and houses several hundred migrants, claiming the centre sees as many as 24 people in a room and that migrants live in prison-like conditions.
“Except for bunk beds, a table and chairs, there is nothing in the cells. The men have to store their clothes in plastic bags on the floor. There are bars in front of the windows, the grounds are surrounded by fences with barbed wire – like in a prison,” the group said.
Last year, migrants flooded across the Polish border with Belarus and many did not stay in Poland but came to Germany instead, with an estimated 11,213 migrants passing through Poland to get to Germany last year. Over 5,200 of the migrants arrived in the month of October alone.
Pro Asyl is not the first NGO to complain about Poland’s policy toward migrants in recent months. In February, a group of around 150 NGOs called on Poland to stop constructing a border barrier with Belarus, arguing the barrier would harm the local environment.
Just a month later, more NGOs complained that Poland was welcoming Ukrainian refugees but not allowing migrants to arrive from Belarus, arguing the country was engaging in double standards.
“It’s a strange feeling: I’m of course very happy with this welcome boost towards refugees from Ukraine. But you wonder: why can’t it be the same at the border further north? At the Ukrainian border, we have already had more than 2 million people. And on the Belarusian border, we are talking about only a few thousand,” Monika Matus, a member of Grupa Granica said.