Eurasia Press & News
Many of the almost 100 migrants held in the detention centre at Przemysl, in southeast Poland, have gone on hunger strike, demanding an end to what they see as arbitrary detention, BIRN can confirm.
A hunger strike by migrants held in the Przemysl detention centre, which began on September 5 and is ongoing at the time of publication, is the biggest protest organised so far by migrants in Poland.
The department of the Polish Border Guard managing the Przemysl centre confirmed to BIRN that “several dozen residents are currently refusing to come out for meals”.
Prolonged detention and poor living conditions have led a growing number of migrants residing at centres across Poland to protest over the last two years. The number of migrants reaching Poland has been rising sharply with the opening of the new eastern land migration route via Belarus.
According to Grupa Granica, one of the main groups assisting migrants in Poland, at least five protests took place in detention centres across Poland over the last two years, including a previous one at Przemysl.
However, the current protest likely reflects a feeling among migrants that Polish authorities are lately pushing them faster towards deportation.
BIRN spoke to three migrants on hunger strike in Przemysl, two from Africa and one from Asia. All requested their names and countries of origin be withheld, to avoid being identified by the authorities of the centre, where they all complained that guards use physical violence against inmates.
“This is about freedom, not about the quality of the food in the canteen – not that the food is adequate either,” one of the hunger strikers told BIRN over the phone from Przemysl. “It is about us being detained here, without having any idea when we will be released, or what will happen to us in future. Some of the people have already had two birthdays since they are closed here.”
“Even criminals in prisons know when they will be released,” the man added.
Under EU law, migrants can be detained for up to six months, a period that can be prolonged to 18 months in exceptional circumstances, such as non-cooperation with authorities.
The migrants at Przemysl claim they are neither being informed properly, nor in a language they understand, about the predicted duration of their detention. In some cases, they recounted episodes of themselves or colleagues being told a few days before the six-month expiry date that they would have to stay on, without being given a clear reason that they could potentially challenge in court.
“We call this the ‘Polish Guantanamo’,” one of the migrants told BIRN. “If there are any rules this place is run by, then no one is explaining them to us. This is absolute lawlessness.”
They say the lack of information about their legal status in a language they can understand is adding to the psychological burden.
One migrant at Przemysl tried to commit suicide at the end of July, according to Grupa Granica, and others are in poor mental shape but don’t receive proper psychological care, according to those interviewed.
“We are being treated like animals, not humans,” one of the migrants said, adding that guards do not use the migrants’ names but refer to them by numbers.
The department of the Polish Border Guard managing the Przemysl centre told BIRN that some of the hunger striking migrants were using food packages in their personal possession and shared photos with BIRN of a few migrants apparently eating in the canteen, which the spokesperson said happened September 7.
The spokesman denied allegations of violence and insisted the centre provides adequate medical care. He also said migrants are typically detained there for 60 days or three months, a period which can be prolongued in some cases, on the basis of court decisions. “The majority of the 94 residents are in return procedure,” the spokesman said. “The either wait for their identity to be confirmed, or for the return decision to be made or executed.”
According to one of the migrants interviewed by BIRN, an aggravating factor leading migrants to go on hunger strike has been that, in the last months, people held at Przemysl have been seeing their asylum applications processed faster, which is in line with the goals of EU migration policy – speedier procedures and faster deportation. Given that acceptance rates are only around 5 per cent in Poland, most migrants can expect to be deportated to their home countries faster than before.
That would also close a small window of hope for migrants in Poland, which BIRN described in a previous article. According to the BIRN investigation, while Polish authorities were taking too long to process applications, migrants ended up being released after six months without a decision on their status being made, some of them making their way to the West. If applications are processed faster, that possibility closes, leaving most migrants facing only two choices: detention or deportation.
Poland’s Office for Foreigners, responsible for processing asylum applications, did not respond to BIRN’s questions about the speed of processing cases by the time of publication.
Zuzana Kaciupska, a lawyer at the Association for Legal Interventional, a legal NGO helping migrants, told BIRN that, based on her case work, she can confirm that processing times appear to be faster for those in detention in the last year, compared to the year before, which prevents people from being released after the six-month mark.
“Most of us are not in good shape, physically or emotionally,” one of the men told BIRN three days into the hunger strike. “But unless someone comes to us to explain the procedures and when we can expect release, we will keep going with our protest.”
