On Thursday, at the request of its Polish delegation, the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe held a topical debate on increased migration pressure on the borders of Latvia, Lithuania and Poland with Belarus. It was concluded by the adoption of a resolution.
The Assembly is calling on Belarusian authorities to “ stop using migrants, asylum seekers and refugees for political purposes” – the term “hybrid warfare” was repeatedly used during the debates – and is calling on the governments of those three countries that are impacted to refrain from pushback and to guarantee respect for the fundamental rights of those who are seeking to enter their country. The Assembly is also calling for solidarity from other Council of Europe member states and for co-operation with the European Union so that the problem of these irregular migration flows can be solved.
The Assembly has also announced the creation – within the Council of Europe – of a group that is devoted to the human rights situation in Belarus, including the situation facing migrants, refugees and asylum seekers in that country.
The report confirms that this migration influx is a response by Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko to the sanctions that were imposed by the European Union in June and deplores that “the situation on the EU’s eastern border demonstrates that Europe is not ready for such migration and asylum challenges”. The situation is all the more deplorable because it has provoked new waves of anti-migrant rhetoric and the building of new fences in Europe.
“It is clear that the European Union urgently needs to reconsider its reception procedures and solidarity mechanism”, wrote Anne-Mari Virolainen (European People’s Party, Finland), a rapporteur on the dossier.
Link to the report and resolution: https://bit.ly/2ZF15Wp (Original version in French by Véronique Leblanc)