WARSAW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 12th January, 2023) The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) has lifted a ban that prohibited Poland from sending migrants coming to the country from Belarus back to its Eastern neighbor, the Polish Border Guard said on Wednesday.
In December 2021, the ECHR temporarily banned Poland from deporting migrants who had already come to Poland from Belarus and appealed to the court. The decision concerned 40 applications from over 90 migrants that arrived in Poland after illegally crossing the Polish-Belarusian border.
"After reviewing the materials provided by Poland and migrants' representatives, the court has terminated or has not prolonged a temporary measure on all 40 cases," the guard said in a statement.
The border guard stated that the court had stopped considering applications in 25 cases as no contact with applicants could be established, with some of them moving outside of Poland to other EU states.
Representatives of some migrants appealed to the ECHR long before these foreigners illegally crossed the border and, thus, abused the ruling made by the court, the Polish authorities said.
Relations between Belarus and its European neighbors have soured due to the migrant crisis that unfolded last year, with Poland, Latvia and Lithuania accusing Minsk of facilitating the transfer of migrants across its borders. Minsk denied all accusations and said it could no longer deal with the inflow of migrants due to European sanctions.
