Berlin/Osnabrück, June 7th, 2024- The situation on the Polish-Belarusian border is currently worsening: With regard to the upcoming European elections, Terre des Hommes urgently demands that the EU and its Member States are urgently met.
The child rights organization Terre des Hommes criticizes the announced project of the Polish government to establish a restricted zone on the border with Belarus. Due to a new restricted zone, the humanitarian situation on the border would deteriorate even further, because this would give human rights activists, journalists and also humanitarian helpers not to get access to the areas in which children and families seeking protection are.
"We currently know about at least 36 unaccompanied children who are stuck at the border," says Maria Ksiazak from the International Humanitarian Initiative Foundation. “I could talk to them, know their fears and needs. But next week a regulation threatens to get access to a further 200 meters and thus prevent any direct contact «.
»There is a 5.5 meter high fence, the top of which was newly covered with a razor-colored draw-harmonica wire. Behind the fence you can see children there, they sit in the EU. You can also see a door in the fence that is used for illegal pushbacks on the Belarusian side. We are committed to ensuring that this door to Europe is opened to the children, «continues Ksiazak.
»Both the Polish government as well as the EU and its Member States have to protect people who are looking for protection in Europe. Every child has the right to live dignity. That is why Terre des Hommes is committed to ensuring that the security and protection of children come first - regardless of their origin. Because every child counts! ”Says Annika Schlingheider, political speaker of the child rights organization Terre des Hommes Germany eV
<hr />Additional background:
- In a joint statement of May 29, 2024 , various Polish aid organizations report that they observe an escalation of violence through border protection and the Polish army towards children and adults who try to cross the Polish-Belarussian border. The descriptions from the statement about the Polish border power are reminiscent of the scenes from the current film "Green Border" by Agnieszka Holland: use of tear gas, blows, take off, step, throw to the ground, put on handcuffs, destruction of phones and documents, removal of backpacks with food and clean water. According to the organizations, people report that they are forced to sign false explanations by threats or physical violence and then be brought behind a fence. On the Belarusian side, people are instrumentalized, captured in the forest, robbed, blackmailed. They are beaten, tracted with electric shocks, tracked with dogs and raped.
- Further information on the situation on the Polish-Belarusian and other EU external borders in Terre des Hommes' report "in front of walls and behind bars-how children and adolescents are illegally pushed back and imprisoned at the external borders of the EU" (2023).