EU Eastern Borders: New EC Communication on ‘Instrumentalisation’ ― Poland accused of pushbacks into Belarus ― EC refuses to release frozen funding for Hungary ― NGOs in Finland urge government to reopen crossing points on border with Russia | European Council on Refugees and Exiles (ECRE)

The European Commission (EC) is planning to increase the support it provides to EU member states to counter the instrumentalisation of people trying to cross the EU’s eastern border irregularly.
An NGO report has revealed that Polish authorities have been using violence to push people who try to cross the country’s eastern border back to Belarus and denying them access to asylum procedures.
The EC has decided that the measures that the Hungarian government proposed to take to address concerns raised about the rule of law in the country are insufficient to enable it to release the EU funding that has been blocked since December 2022.
Three NGOs have urged the Finnish government to open the crossing points on the country’s border with Russia and to enable people to access the asylum system.

The European Commission (EC) is planning to increase the support it provides to EU member states (MS) to counter the instrumentalisation of people trying to cross the EU’s eastern border irregularly. In a press release issued on 11 December, the EC announced that it had adopted a communication on “countering hybrid threats from the weaponisation of migration and strengthening security at the EU’s external border” in which it aimed to identify the “challenges at the EU’s external land borders with Russia and Belarus and the threat to the Union’s security”, strengthen the “EU policy response and operational support”, including by making available € 170 million of additional funding to Estonia, Finland, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland and Norway; reaffirm the “legal context” and increase “cooperation with the Union and other Member States”. Commenting on the adoption of the communication, EC President Ursula von der Leyen said: “We have taken another decisive step to support our frontline Member States in countering hybrid threats from Russia’s and Belarus’ unacceptable weaponisation of migration”, adding: “Autocrats must never be allowed to use our European values against us”. On 12 December, Poland’s deputy interior minister, Maciej Duszcyz, said that it was “very important” that the EC had taken notice of Poland’s “truly special situation as a country, which is difficult to compare, for example, with the south of Europe”. Commenting on the communication, ECRE Director Catherine Woollard countered the view that had been expressed in various press articles that the EC was “endorsing” EU MS’ recent actions or that it signalled that the EC was heading in a “new direction”. “The communication is not a greenlight to member states to go ahead with limiting the right to asylum or indeed any other restrictive measure,” she wrote in an editorial which was published on 13 December, adding that it was “not in the Commission’s gift to render unlawful actions lawful” and that it was “also not the role of the Commission to interpret the law”.

An NGO report has revealed that Polish authorities have been using violence to push people who try to cross the country’s eastern border back to Belarus and denying them access to asylum procedures. According to the report, which was published by Human Rights Watch (HRW) on 10 December, “Polish law enforcement is unlawfully, and sometimes violently, forcing people trying to enter the country back to Belarus without considering their protection needs”. “Those pushed back risk serious abuse at the hands of Belarus officials or being trapped in harsh conditions in the open air that can lead to death or serious injury,” it added. In its response to the accusations set out in the report, which are based on HRW’s interviews with both people seeking asylum in Poland and various humanitarian, medical and legal service providers, a spokesperson for Poland’s interior ministry told Polish Television (TVP) that its measures were necessary to “ensure the protection of the border” and to “safeguard national security in the face of the instrumentalisation of migration,” adding that they were “proportionate” to prevent irregular border crossings and to “protect [border guard officers’] own security in threatening situations”. According to the NGO We Are Monitoring, 88 people have died near the border (both sides) between September 2021 (when the previous government declared a state of emergency) and October 2024. HRW has called on the EC to take action against Poland, which will take over the presidency of the Council of the EU on 1 January. “As the next holder of the EU presidency, Poland should be setting an example by safeguarding the right to seek asylum at its borders and ensuring that people are treated humanely and their rights protected,” said Lydia Gall from the organisation. “The Commission should stop ignoring Poland’s abuses at its border with Belarus and ensure that the protection of human beings and their rights is at the core of Poland’s response”.

The EC has decided that the measures that the Hungarian government proposed to take to address concerns raised about the rule of law in the country are insufficient to enable it to release the EU funding that has been blocked since December 2022. In a press release issued on 15 December, the EC announced that it had adopted a decision in which it found that the measures about which the Hungarian government had notified it on 2 December did not “adequately address the outstanding concerns on conflicts of interests in the boards of public interest trusts” and, as a result, the withholding of the funds would be maintained. It also noted that the “other Council measure suspending part of cohesion funds” would also remain in place as the Hungarian government “did not notify any remedy to sufficiently remedy the situation”. The EC decision will have come as no surprise to the five NGOs, including ECRE member organisation the Hungarian Helsinki Committee (HHC), who have published their own assessment of the steps that the Hungarian government has taken to remedy the issues raised by the EC and Council of the EU, including regarding the right to asylum and the principle of non-refoulement. “There are areas where no progress has been made at all, many of the required measures are severely delayed, and flaws in the regulation and the practice undermine the capacity of legal amendments and new measures to effect real change,” they wrote, adding: “The Hungarian government’s approach suggests that it looks at the conditions set by the EU and Member States as a “ticking-the-box” exercise at best, without a real commitment to restoring the rule of law and respect for human rights in Hungary”.

Three NGOs have urged the Finnish government to open the crossing points on the country’s border with Russia and to enable people to access the asylum system. In an op-ed published in the Helsingin Sanomat newspaper to mark the first anniversary of the border closure in December 2023, the executive director of ECRE member organisation the Finnish Refugee Advice Centre, Pia Lindfors, and her counterparts from Amnesty international Finland and the Finnish Refugee Council wrote that “closing the eastern border and restricting asylum applications cannot be a permanent solution in a situation where the number of people in need of international protection has increased worldwide for twelve consecutive years” and that “Finland must also respect the human dignity of those seeking asylum and guarantee the right to seek asylum regardless of the method of entry”. “Finland must open border crossings and guarantee the possibility of seeking asylum in accordance with international human rights obligations and the Constitution,” they concluded.

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