#WORLD #WORLDWIDE #ITALY #POLAND #BELARUS #ANARCHISM #LIBRARY #News #Journal #Update - (en) #Italy, Galatea FAI: Migrant question. Situation from the #Polish - #Belarusian border - 3 (ca, de, it, pt, tr)[machine translation]

 -The Polish Parliament is trying to make the life of asylum seekers more

difficult by proposing changes to the Law on Foreigners ---- The new act, created
within the Ministry of Administration and Internal Affairs, was approved on 26
January 2023 by the parliamentary commission and then voted on by 228 deputies.
27 were against and 194 abstained from voting. ---- This amendment will now have
to be debated in the Senate, which can still reject it. But will they? ---- Some
of the more alarming changes are as follows: ---- 1. Appeals against a negative
decision in the[legal]case concerning a migrant person will no longer be dealt
with by the Aliens Office, but by the head of the Border Guard, i.e. by someone
who is part of the same institution that gave the initial negative opinion .
2. The maximum time of detention in a closed and supervised facility will be
increased to 18 months.
3. Possibility of detaining a foreign person, including a child, who has been
refused entry to Poland for up to 7 days. Without a court decision.
4. Reduction from 14 to 7 days to lodge an appeal against decisions on the
obligation to return, negative decisions on the residence permit for humanitarian
reasons or tolerated stay.
For many people,[this measure]would essentially deprive them of the ability to
lodge an appeal.
5. Reduction of the time available for a "voluntary return" from 15 to 8 days.
6. Furthermore, the foreign person can be forced to leave during the ongoing
administrative procedure, i.e. before the decision to grant (or not)
international protection is issued.
7. The Commander-in-Chief of the Border Guard would be the figure who organizes
the "voluntary repatriation" and decides on the transfer of the foreign person to
another EU Member State responsible for examining the application for
international protection (Dublin Regulation) .
8. The establishment of a new system for the exchange of information on return
decisions between EU countries - SIS, the Schengen Information System.
The system is intended to allow for the identification of persons subject to such
a decision, who have gone into hiding and been apprehended in another Member
State. It would be used to verify whether they have left the territory of a
particular state and to use the data collected in order to refuse entry.
9. The requirement to have a confirmed knowledge of the Polish language at a
higher level than before, as a condition for obtaining a long-term EU residence
permit.
The changes mentioned, if they enter into force, will deprive migrants of the
possibility of fighting for themselves in the face of an already inhumane
legislation.
Reducing the time to appeal negative decisions should be a direct path to
"voluntary returns". The extension of detention time in a guarded center should
further break detained people and dissuade individuals on the move from trying to
make their way into Poland - the EU's "famous" respect for human rights!
Furthermore, the proposed changes would give the head of the Border Guard almost
absolute power to decide the fate of individuals.
Walls, pushbacks, detentions and now this...
Poland, we have no words, except that we will not stop trying to help those in
need - although this amendment, if implemented, will make[all of this]more difficult.
Those who seek refuge from oppression and hatred will never be alone!

-Sewar is free!
Finally good news! Following a request from the Ombudsman's office's equal
treatment group, the head of the aliens' office issued a decision to release
Sewar from the detention center.
Contrary to the law prohibiting the detention of people alleged to have suffered
violence, the young Syrian was placed in a closed center in Bialystok. Initially
he stayed there for two months and in early January he learned that his stay had
been extended for another four months, i.e. until mid-May. Shortly after he went
on a hunger strike, later suspended under ambiguous circumstances, he was held in
solitary confinement - all while his health deteriorated. (See previous updates
Original Post on Telegram - Post translated into Italian)
Last week (January 30-February 5, 2023, ndt) Sewar was transported to the
hospital after yet another suicide attempt. He recovered quite quickly, but the
threat of going back to prison was still lurking.
This Tuesday (February 7, ndt), in the Bialystok Regional Court, the date for the
appeal against the decision of the first instance court[concerning
the]prolongation of his detention was set.

The Polish law on granting protection to aliens on the territory of the Republic
of Poland allows, under certain circumstances, an ex officio decision on release
from a supervised center. According to the collected documentation, Sewar
satisfies these requirements; the head of the Foreign Office issued a release
document and the court had to reject the request to extend the detention - the
fight for the rights of our Syrian friend has finally taken effect.
On the same day, border guards came to pick him up from the hospital and offered
to take him first to the place where he had spent the last few weeks in solitary
confinement, the Bialystok Detention Center, to collect his belongings. Sewar
strongly objected, saying he wanted to forget this structure.
"They broke my heart in there multiple times," he said.
Now Sewar is finally free and has found a place in an open center in Debak, near
Warsaw.
This success is due to the joint efforts of several people - activistu, avvocatu,
the Ombudsman's Office and of course individuals - who tried to put pressure on
the Border Guards and on any decisive instance.
Of course, none of this would be necessary if there were no border issues, but
for now, let's celebrate. Tomorrow we will fight again.

-Letter from Nazar

On February 7, Nazar, originally from Iraq, went on hunger strike at the Przemysl
Guarded Center for Foreigners. He is 26 years old. He has already spent a year
and a half imprisoned in this facility, as decisions on his extended detention
are regularly renewed every few months by the court.
In this cruel system, human beings don't count, which is why we cry out loud
together:
"Freedom for Nazar and for all the detainees!!!"
Below we publish the letter announcing the start of the protest.
"TO THE COMMANDER
Dear Sir/Madam
I want to inform you that starting today, February 7, 2023, I'm starting a hunger
strike.
I wish to inform you that I do not want to break any rules in any way. My current
situation is leading me to do this and I have lost my appetite.
I have been in this detention center for more than 18 months, which is unfair.
I fled my country because of the bad experiences and violence I encountered
there. I came to Europe hoping I could live a normal life for a human being, but
I still find myself suffering.
I see many people brought into this camp and then released and I don't know
anything about what happens in my case and why. For this reason I go on hunger
strike!!!
With respect.
Nazar Ibrahim"

-The frontier has taken on another life: this time it is a young Ethiopian woman.

She was traveling with her husband and two other men. Concerned about her
condition, two men left the forest to seek help, sacrificing the chance to stay
in Europe and all the efforts made to cross the border. Sadly, the police and
border guards ignored their pleas for help and sent the men back to Belarus.

After some time, the activists at the border were contacted by a third man - the
woman's husband, who stayed with her in the forest. It turned out that he is
already in Belarus and her wife is still in the forest. Probably when the first
two members of the group did not return, he decided to seek help himself, ran
into the[Polish]Border Guard or the police and met the same fate: he asked to
save the person he loved and was taken by the[police]services and driven back to
Belarus.

On February 12, activists found the body of a woman in the woods.

As tragedy unfolded at the border, EU leaders gathered in Brussels to discuss the
migration crisis. However, discussions focused on the problem rather than
opportunities or human rights. Leaders celebrated the success of their
comprehensive approach to migration, developed over the years to align with EU
principles and values. In reality, however, the only result of this approach has
been yet another death at the external borders. The European Union openly
prioritizes wide-ranging external action, which includes putting pressure on the
countries of the global South to stop migration, and protecting the EU's external
borders at any cost.

The legalization of pushbacks by the Polish government is being kept under wraps
and the European Union is not addressing the issue. It might seem that the EU
prioritizes human rights, but it finances the construction of dams on its
external borders and invests in infrastructure, technology and weapons to
maintain the so-called European way of life. EU actions suggest a willingness to
EU actions suggest a willingness to prioritize appearances over a genuine concern
for human rights.

Every border kills, so we will effectively fight the myth of the so-called
fortress Europe. We will not forget any of his victims, nor will we forgive[those
who killed them].

https://gruppoanarchicogalatea.noblogs.org/post/2023/02/14/questione-migranti-situazione-dal-confine-polacco-bielorusso-3/
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