Migrant's rights in Poland: European Commission against Racism and Intolerance

 

The European Commission against Racism and Intolerance (ECRI) is a body of the Council of Europe which since 1993 is entrusted with the task of combating racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia, antisemitism and intolerance in greater Europe from the perspective of the protection of human rights and in the light of the European Convention on Human Rights.

 

ECRI raises concern about how children are schooled in reception centres. ECRI notes with interest that on 13 June 2003, Poland adopted the Law on Aliens regulating the entry and stay of non-citizens in the territory of Poland. This law introduced the first regularisation programme for migrants in an irregular situation who had been residing in Poland for several years. The number of immigrants living in Poland is less than one per cent of the total population. ECRI notes that the authorities are implementing an integration programme for refugees but that nothing similar is currently envisaged by the authorities as regards immigrants. According to some sources, such an integration programme should be organised as soon as possible for the immigrants who already live in the country. The case of the Vietnamese community in Poland has been given as an example of the need for integration measures. The Vietnamese community constitutes around 30 000 persons, divided into two categories. Around 8 000 of them arrived a long time ago in Poland and do not appear to encounter problems of integration into Polish society. However, a second group of around 22 000 persons has arrived only in the 1990’s in Poland and this group is faced with problems linked to the lack of command of Polish and a difficult economic situation.

 

Immigrants in an illegal situation are kept in detention centres set up for this purpose. According to the new legislation of 2003, the maximum length of stay permitted in these centres is 12 months. Persons in the detention centre may claim asylum. ECRI notes that, in some centres, the living conditions are not satisfactory. Another problem is the lack of human and financial means in many centres. The most important problem identified by the NGOs is that persons kept in detention do not always have satisfactory access to information in a language they understand concerning their rights, including the right to apply for asylum and to contact the United Nations Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and NGOs working for asylum seekers and refugees.

Since the entry into force in September 2003 of the Law on Granting Protection to Aliens on the Territory of the Republic of Poland, four types of protection status can be granted to non-citizens. The refugee status corresponds to the status provided for in the 1951 Geneva Convention relating to the status of Refugees. The new law introduced the “tolerated status”, a subsidiary protection granted to non-citizens who ask for asylum when their right to life, to freedom or personal safety, to be free from forced labour, torture or inhumane or degrading treatment or punishment or to a fair trial is under threat. Such protection can also be granted when the deportation of a non-citizen is impossible. The third status is the temporary protection and may be granted to a group of persons who enter Poland in great numbers after an armed conflict or serious violations of human rights. The last status, called asylum status, is a form of protection granted to non-citizens in the interest of the Polish state. Until now, there has been no case of temporary protection or asylum status granted. ECRI notes that the new law, and particularly the introduction of a tolerated status, was generally welcomed as an improvement for the protection of asylum seekers and refugees in Poland. Progress has also been noted in the field of legal and social protection for unaccompanied minors and in the length of the asylum procedure.

Since 2000, the number of people seeking asylum in Poland has been increasing. In 2003, out of the 6 918 persons who made a request for asylum, 5 581 were Russian citizens, mainly of Chechen origin. 4 295 of the persons who made an asylum request in 2003 have withdrawn their applications, 187 of them were granted refugee status, and 20 others were granted tolerated status. This means that altogether 1648 requests were rejected. The authorities have indicated that until October 2004, 636 persons, mainly Russian citizens of Chechen origin, were granted tolerated status. NGOs have indicated that the authorities tend to grant more tolerated status than refugee status, although many persons, and particularly those of Chechen origin,

 

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