14:56, 31 August 2016

Poland refuses accepting refugees from Chechnya

Refugees from Chechnya in a camp near Belarus-Poland border. Photo by Stanislav Korshunov, TUT.BY http://news.tut.by/society/510015.html

The authorities of Poland will not grant asylum to migrants from Chechnya, since there is no war in this Russian region. This has been reported today by Mariusz Błaszczak, Minister of Internal Affairs of Poland. He has made such a statement after on August 29, more than 150 Russian citizens from Chechnya gathered at the Belarusian-Polish border and demanded from Poland to grant them asylum.

"We will not surrender to the pressure of those who wish to promote a crisis of migration. Our policy is quite different. The Polish border is sealed. There is no war in Chechnya in contrast to the situation of several years ago," stated Mariusz Błaszczak, Minister of Internal Affairs of Poland.

Roman Kislyak, a Brest human rights defender, has reported that in the afternoon of August 29, an improvised camp of Chechen refugees was arranged not far from the automobile checkpoint "Brest".

"These people are trying to get into Europe in the refugee status. Some of them made 20 attempts to enter Poland and ask for political asylum in the country. The Polish authorities send them back. And their current action is an attempt to draw attention to their desperate situation," said Roman Kislyak.

On August 30, the refugees left the camp and returned to Brest, the Belarusian portal "TUT.BY" reports.

The main land route of Chechen migrants is to Poland through Belarus. Many of them treat Poland only as an entry point, and they tend to continue their journey to the West, in particularly, to Germany and less frequently to Austria, France, Belgium, and Denmark. According to the Office for Foreigners in Poland, from 2009 till May 2015, more than 39,300 Russian citizens applied for the refugee status in the country. Most of them were natives of the Chechen Republic. This was reported by the article "How to go to Europe and get the refugee status" published on the "Caucasian Knot".

Full text of the article is available on the Russian page of 24/7 Internet agency ‘Caucasian Knot’.