Polish Firearms Law Raises Human Rights Concerns

 

Poland’s parliament has approved controversial proposals to decriminalize the use of firearms by border guards in self-defense under certain circumstances.

NGOs say the legislative changes violate human rights standards, but the government says they are needed to protect the Polish-Belarusian border from increasingly aggressive migrant gangs.

Last month, a 21-year-old soldier died after being stabbed while trying to stop migrants from entering the country illegally.

Warsaw accuses Belarus of encouraging Asian and African migrants to enter Poland illegally in order to destabilize the European Union.

Poland’s new, pro-European government had promised a more humanitarian approach to the migrant crisis.

Instead, after the soldier was stabbed, a temporary exclusion zone was reinstated at the border, which hinders public scrutiny because journalists and NGOs must apply for a pass to enter the area.

According to Deputy Interior Minister Maciej Duszczyk, 13 border protection officers have suffered permanent health damage as a result of attacks by migrants since the crisis began three years ago.

Mr Duszczyk said officers would only be exempt from criminal liability if they used their weapons in response to a direct assault to protect the lives of colleagues.

“I would like to dispel any doubts about the excessive nature of these provisions,” he wrote in response to concerns raised by the Council of Europe Commissioner for Human Rights, Michael O’Flaherty.

Mr O’Flaherty and other human rights organisations have urged MPs to reject the proposals, arguing they breach human rights standards.

He said the new rules could eliminate discouragement for Border Patrol officers from using excessive force.

“It could also lead to a situation where circumstances in which the arbitrary use of force or firearms by state agents may result in loss of life or physical harm are not adequately investigated, particularly in cases where the victims are on the other side of the border,” he wrote in a letter to Polish authorities.

Public opinion appears to support Prime Minister Donald Tusk’s tough stance on border security: a poll last month found that 86 percent of respondents supported allowing soldiers to use their weapons to repel attacks by some migrants.

Many reacted with anger last month when media reports revealed that three soldiers patrolling the border had been arrested and handcuffed after firing more than 40 warning shots at a group of migrants who were breaking through the border fence.
Shortly afterwards, Mr Tusk announced plans to reintroduce the exclusion zone, banning unauthorised persons from entering part of the border, and to amend the law on the use of firearms.

In a separate letter, Mr O’Flaherty called on Mr Tusk to end the practice of migrant pushbacks, saying 7,317 people had been summarily returned to Belarus, some after seeking asylum in Poland, between December 2023 and June 2024.

In response, Mr Duszczyk said: “I consider the return of migrants to the Belarusian side immediately after crossing the border to be a proportionate reaction.”

He said that migrants who have requested international protection are not being repatriated.
NGOs estimate that over the past three years 130 migrants have died in the border area between Belarus and three neighbouring EU countries, Poland, Lithuania and Latvia: many died from exposure to sub-zero temperatures or drowned in marshy areas.

Mr Duszczyk said the new government had taken “zero deaths at the border” as a principle, adding that 1,319 migrants who entered Poland illegally over the past three years had been treated in Polish hospitals.

He said non-permanent response teams created in February to search for people lost in forests and swamps had helped 84 people. [BBC]

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