EU EASTERN BORDERS: Significant Increase in Arrivals via EU Eastern Borders Despite Overall Decrease in EU ― Finland Adopts Controversial ‘Pushback’ Law ― Asylum Seekers File Lawsuit Against Lithuania for Unlawful Detention ― NGO Calls for Urgent Actio…

• Preliminary data from the European Border and Coast Guard Agency (Frontex) has revealed a 148% increase in irregular crossings of the EU’s eastern borders between January and June 2024 despite an overall decrease of 30% for the EU as a whole.
• The Finnish Parliament has adopted a controversial new law that would allow border guards to push back people who try to cross the country’s border with Russia without first allowing them to apply for asylum.
• A group of 24 asylum seekers have filed a class action lawsuit requesting compensation for their arbitrary detention in Lithuania in 2021-2022.
• The Norwegian Refugee Council has called on the EU and the wider international community to act urgently to help people trapped in the area that it describes as the ‘death zone’ between the Polish and Belarusian border fences and along the border.
• The Polish government has asked its French and German counterparts for support to its efforts to secure the country’s border with Belarus.

According to the European Border and Coast Guard Agency (Frontex), there was a significant increase in the number of irregular border crossings into the EU via the EU’s eastern borders in the first half of 2024 compared to the same period in 2023. Preliminary data published by Frontex on 11 July has revealed a 148% increase in irregular crossings of the ‘Eastern Land Border’ between January and June 2024 despite an overall decrease of 30% for the EU as a whole. Of the 6,700 people “detected” on this route, the “vast majority” were Ukrainian nationals.

On 12 July, the Finnish Parliament adopted a new law that would allow border guards to push back people who try to cross the country’s border with Russia without first allowing them to apply for asylum. The controversial law (called the ‘Act on Temporary Measures to Combat Instrumentalised Migration’) was approved by 167 MPs with 31 voting against. Speaking after the vote, Prime Minister Petteri Orpo said: “Since the end of last year, we have seen Russia deliberately using migrants as an instrument of hybrid influence: against our security, against our borders,” adding: “Today the Parliament has approved the law by a clear majority”. He also described the new law as “a strong message to Russia and a strong message to our allies [that] Finland will take care of its own security and the security of the EU border”. Minister of the Interior Mari Rantanen said: “We hope that this law will never have to be applied, but that it works as a preventive law”. Prime Minister Orpo also tried to dissuade critics’ concerns about the potential implications of the “pushback law” on the rule of law in Finland. “No one should be worried that Finland will not be a state that respects the rule of law in the future and after this vote,” he said. ECRE member organisation the Finnish Refugee Advice Centre was unconvinced. “Today is a dark day for the rule of law, as the parliament has voted to include illegal pushbacks in the law,” it X posted, adding: “The law prevents people seeking asylum from accessing a fair asylum process and allows them to be returned to areas where they are at risk of torture or other inhumane treatment. This law violates the rights of people seeking asylum and Finland’s own international obligations”. “Finland cannot claim to be a country that respects the rule of law,” it concluded. Prime Minister Orpo also tried to draw on support from the European Commission (EC), saying: “There is strong support from the Commission for maintaining border security. An uncontrolled entry route like the one in the Mediterranean is not wanted in the north either”. The EC’s chief spokesperson, Eric Mamer, recognised the unusual nature of the of the new law, telling reporters on 15 July: “We are not in a business as usual type of procedure”. Mamer also said that the EC would be analysing the new law to ensure its compatibility with EU law. “Member states have a duty to protect their borders. There are conditions to how they should do that, and that’s why we are going to analyse the law,” he added. The director of Amnesty Finland, Frank Johansson, indicated that his organisation would be following the EC’s analysis of the law which, in his view “goes beyond all powers granted under EU law”, very closely. “We expect the Commission to rigorously scrutinize its legality,” he X posted.

A group of 24 asylum seekers have filed a class action lawsuit requesting compensation for their arbitrary detention in Lithuania in 2021-2022. The case, which is being supported by Amnesty International, relates to the Lithuanian government’s decision to declare an “emergency” in July 2021, and subsequently to detain more than 4,000 people who entered the country from Belarus. In a press release about the case, Amnesty International wrote: “In June 2023, the Lithuanian Constitutional Court ruled that the law imposing automatic detention of every single person seeking asylum during the initial six months period violated the right to liberty, as guaranteed by the Lithuanian Constitution”. It added: “Based on the ruling, all those affected should be entitled to reparations for the months of suffering they were subjected to. However, the Lithuanian government has so far failed to set up a mechanism to provide them with redress”. Commenting on the case, the organisation’s deputy regional director for Europe, Dinushika Dissanayake, said: “At least four thousand men, women and children were unlawfully detained for months on end, without any possibility to challenge the decision before a judge. This represented a betrayal of the rule of law of seismic proportions, imposing tremendous suffering on people who were looking for international protection and dignified treatment”. “The claimants suffered multiple injustices at the hands of the Lithuanian authorities. By presenting this legal challenge, they are demanding justice for the time that was stolen from them and their children in detention. If successful, the case will provide an avenue for reparation not only to them, but also to others who will hopefully be allowed to join the class action,” she added. She also criticised the EC for failing to address Lithuania’s “patent” violation of EU law. “The case is also a damning indictment of the European Commission’s credibility as ‘guardian of the EU Treaties’. This patent violation of EU law by the Lithuanian authorities is yet to give rise to the launch of infringement proceedings, three years later,” she said.

ECRE member organisation the Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC) has called for urgent action to help people trapped along the Poland-Belarus border. In a press release issued on 12 July, NRC noted that 82 deaths had been recorded in what it describes as the “death zone” between the Polish and Belarusian border fences and along the border since 2021. The organisation’s country director in Poland, Neil Brighton, denounced the Polish government’s decision to reintroduce the exclusion zone on its side of the border. “The exclusion zone with no access for humanitarian workers is a recipe for disaster. It affects the weakest and the most vulnerable refugees seeking international protection. Data shows that building fences and pushing back people won’t stop them from seeking safety and protection”. He also appealed to the EU and the wider international community to intervene, saying: “The European Union and the international community must support the Government of Poland by increasing reception capacity at the border and addressing the root causes of displacement through humanitarian and development assistance”.

NRC’s appeal for action to help people trapped close to the Poland-Belarus border comes a few weeks after the Polish government asked its French and German counterparts for support to its border security efforts. Polish Minister of National Defence Władysław Kosiniak-Kamysz told the Polska Zbrojna website: “I have asked for support in this area – not military support, but police support and border guard support”. He explained the rationale behind his request: “We are struggling with a huge problem – not a migration problem, because today there are no migrants on the Polish-Belarusian border, there are people attacking Polish soldiers, policemen and border guards. They are trained for this”, adding: “It would be very good if our allies from the European Union and NATO took responsibility for border security, to the extent possible”. However, the deputy speaker of the Senate, Maciej Żywno, disagreed with Kosiniak-Kamysz’s assessment of the situation and urged consideration for the people trapped close to the border. “People trapped in a cage between the Polish fence and the Belarusian ‘system’ do not understand hybrid war, they do not understand smuggling rings, they [just] want to survive and save their children,” he told the Gazeta Wyborcza newspaper.

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