Hanna Machinska spoke with representatives of the Council of Europe’s Congress of Local and Regional Authorities about refugees in Poland
Date:
On 4 July 2022, Deputy CHR Hanna Machinska met at the CHR Office with a delegation of the Congress of Local and Regional Authorities of the Council of Europe.
The Council of Europe delegation visiting Poland as part of its work on a thematic report on the situation of refugee women and children in European cities and regions included: Thomas Andersson, Chairman of the Current Affairs Committee of the Congress of Local and Regional Authorities of the Council of Europe, and Bernd Vöhringer and Annika Vaikla, Congress rapporteurs on women and children refugees. The Deputy CHR was accompanied by Maciej Grześkowiak, Chief Coordinator for Scientific Cooperation and Agnieszka Szmajdzińska, Head of the Department for Rights of Migrants and National Minorities.
The discussion concerned issues related to the protection of children and women refugees in Poland. The representatives of the Council of Europe were particularly interested in: refugees’ exposure to human trafficking and gender-based violence and discrimination; access to education; local governments’ participation in the protection of refugees’ rights; long-term integration of refugees in Poland, and the impact of refugees’ concentration in large cities on public mood.
The guests of the CHR also asked about the difference in the standards of treatment of refugees crossing the border between Poland and Belarus and those fleeing Ukraine and not having Ukrainian citizenship.
The CHR Office employees informed the Council delegation about the current legal status of refugees in Poland and pointed to the main threats to their rights, as currently reported to the Commissioner for Human Rights. They also referred to the issue of so-called pushbacks of persons arriving in Poland from Belarus, and their placement in guarded centres for foreigner migrants, and presented the numerous actions the CHR has taken in such cases. The challenges related to the reception by Poland of refugees of Roma origin from Ukraine and the need to ensure their equal treatment was also raised.
