Berlin/Osnabrück, October 18, 2024 – While calls for human rights-violating border pushbacks are growing louder in Germany as well, the migration strategy even proposes a suspension of the right to asylum. This disregard for international law, especially children's rights, must not be tolerated by the EU and must not be allowed to set a precedent.
The children's rights organization Terre des Hommes joins the criticism from Polish civil society, which had described new strategy as a de facto attack on human rights Terre des Hommes : "The humanitarian crisis on the Polish-Belarusian border is already drastically affecting children and their families. Children, teenagers, and adults are forced to wait in the forest for days and are sometimes subjected to massive violence by Polish authorities during unlawful pushbacks. In light of this suffering, we make it clear: Disregarding international law is not a migration strategy and must never become one. All EU member states must ensure that children and their families have access to fair asylum procedures – anything else is a betrayal of the fundamental values of the international community."
Terre des Hommes has been working with Polish civil society organizations since 2022 to ensure the provision of food, dry clothing, and medicine to refugee children and young people in the border region. With the Polish government's announcements, it is expected that the unlawful practice of pushbacks will continue and even intensify.
Further information: https://www.tdh.de/was-wir-tun/projekte/europa/kinder-auf-der-flucht