It hasn't been so bad in a while. The order of 70 years of global exile protection falls. A Europe that has inactive late advocated human rights (it seemed that not only a European man) is increasingly turning them into technocratic control, detention and deportation. Human rights defenders are referred to as "extreme-right-of-human", and the image of a kid on the shore of the Mediterranean Sea does not decision almost anyone.
It has been 10 years since the alleged 2015 migration crisis, which is the minute erstwhile Europe decided that migration could be exploited politically. It's okay, but it's okay. From the minute it turned out that winning elections on anti-migration slogans was an easy shortcut. There were moments erstwhile it seemed that we had learned something over the last 10 years, that we were arrogant of our open arms for Syrians or Ukrainians. But present it seems that Poland and Europe are not so far distant from Putin or Trump as they start to usage their language. Not just by whispering, but during authoritative speeches.
Poland: suspension of the right to asylum as a test for the regulation of law
The fresh law suspending the right to apply for global protection on the Polish-Belarusian border is not only a bad thought – it is simply a dangerous precedent. All eyes should be on Poland today, the crowds should be out on the streets. But there are single voices.
The government argues that migration at the border is solved, but all the data indicate that it is actually deepening. Donald Tusk, who has late spoken about the renewal of the regulation of law and has made all of us have T-shirts in our homes with the logo of the Constitution, present he is more and more like Donald Trump: he spreads hatred speech, creates no space for dialogue, incites emotions and introduces inhuman rights.
The suspension of the right to asylum is simply a public infringement of Article 91(2) of the Polish Constitution, the Geneva Convention and the European Convention on Human Rights. Moreover, the same actions that the camp of present power previously criticized in PiS – pushbacks, a closed border zone, legalization of the usage of weapons against migrants – present it does so without blinking its eye and with cold calculations.
It's political cynicism. The right to asylum was devoted to respective percent points in the polls. Referring to the “hybrid war” or “extraordinary situation” is simply a convenient pretext for suspending fundamental freedoms. First, individual else who has no voice and no tools to defend himself. Whose rights will be suspended as next?
However, the fresh regulations are not only immoral but besides legally flawed. They exposure Border defender officers to work – due to the fact that the order was ordered, but the constitution was not repealed. They besides leave quite a few uncertainty and space for abuse.
The humanitarian crisis is ongoing
According to the study We Are Monitoring, in February 2025 the aid applications afraid 248 people travelling in 140 groups. In 21 days the temperature in Bialowieża did not exceed zero. Migrants were exposed to hypothermia, dehydration, and injuries. 70 cases of exports have been reported, frequently with violence.
More than 20% of the reports afraid women, including pregnant women. 11 people are children, 4 of whom traveled without guardians. On the Belarusian side – deficiency of help, accommodation on the street, reports on torture and exploitation by smuggling networks. That is, just as it has been in the last 3.5 years, erstwhile in practice the right to global protection was a very peculiar situation.
Doctors Without Borders in their final study compose that between November 2022 and November 2024 they provided assistance to 442 people trapped in the wilderness. About half of them suffered physical violence. Most suffered from frostbite and intellectual trauma. all another individual is simply a female or a child.
The study "Brutal Barriers" prepared by Oxfam and Egala Association provides even more worrying data. Poland has systematically pushed people to Belarus since 2021, breaking global and constitutional law. People are trapped in the “death zone” – the muddy space between the barrier and the border where they spend weeks without water, food and help. Temperature drops below -20°C. force – from both Polish and Belarusian services – includes beatings, gasping, clothing deprivation, the usage of dogs and rape.
Aid organizations are persecuted and intimidated. The fresh laws legalize the usage of force and relieve officers of responsibility. Migrants are pushed straight from hospitals, pregnant women, and children go back into the woods. People are dying.
The government uses a war communicative to justify this brutality. Migrants are called “arms” and “threat”. It's a rhetoric that dehumanizes and opens the door to breaking the law. More and more and more.
Migration Pact: selection alternatively of solidarity
In June 2024, the European Union adopted the Pact on Migration and Asylum. This is simply a package of regulations that, contrary to its name, does not order the system, but disassembles it.
It introduces the alleged "non-entry fiction" – a individual detained at the border is not legally recognised as being in the EU, although physically already here. This enables accelerated procedures without a warrant of a fair process.
People from low-recognition countries (e.g. Bangladesh, Morocco, Iraq) go from automatic to detection. Children from 6 years of age will undergo mandatory biometry. States may refuse to accept refugees by paying €20,000 per person.
It's not solidarity, it's a bill. Border states stay alone with the problem. Asylum seekers will be held for up to 16 weeks – without entering the country, without a lawyer, without hope.
Deportations and outsourcing of liability
The European Commission is proposing a fresh deportation strategy that allows for the creation of return centres outside the EU. This resembles the British (Rwanda) or Italian (Albania): ineffective, costly and humiliating. Those who are denied protection are to be sent back to alleged 3rd countries – even if they have no connection with them. The EU offers these countries money, equipment and training in exchange for keeping people at the gates of Europe. The fresh rules besides mention "crisis situations", "instrumentalisation of migration", "higher forces" – they are vague concepts that let any circumvention.
Mines – literal and symbolic
Poland, Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia have announced that they want to leave the Ottawa Convention to ban anti-personnel mines. authoritative reason: threat from Russia. But it is not possible to ask: is it just about defense, or is it about more mines under migrants' feet? due to the fact that the second face, equally real, is fear today. Fear management has become a political tool. alternatively of disarming it – politicians nurture it. And it explodes. This week we hear about "citizen walks" around exile centres and brutal attacks on people with darker skin color. The run atmosphere in Poland is increasingly pogromous.
Europe today. And then what?
But individual is opposed. On April 10, 2025, protests under the slogan "This Pact Kills!" were held in many European and African cities. Participants request the right to dignity, protection and free movement for refugees and migrants. They join their last forces to proceed to argue the black clouds that have gathered over Europe. Meanwhile, on the northern coast of Lesbos, just a fewer days ago, the sea threw distant the bodies of 3 women, a man, a boy and 2 girls from Afghanistan. There were 23 survivors. 1 kid is inactive missing. In 2015, specified a situation would be on the cover of all newspapers. present no 1 talks about these unnecessary deaths.
Poland is holding the six-month Presidency of the Council of the EU. This could be an chance to remind you of the humanitarian values and hospitality we traditionally pride ourselves on. But the elections are coming, so the race is underway – who will shout ‘no’ to migrants louder.
When I think about all this, I'm ashamed. Shame on Europe. For what happened to us, how rapidly it happened and what our humanity will accomplish in the next 10 years. I besides think that shame and repentance is the first step to fix all broken relationship. besides between Europe and migration. Is anyone else trying to save this relationship?
