Parker Schab

May 8, 2026

At the Poland-Belarus border, hundreds of migrants are trapped in geopolitical conflict. They lack access to humanitarian aid and remain unable to apply for asylum. The humanitarian crisis is largely driven by the Belarusian government’s use of migrants as a political tool and the European Union’s willingness to suspend their human rights values in response to what they deem a significant “security threat. Humanitarian organizations such as Human Constanta, report widespread cases of physical violence, starvation, and frostbite, contributing to rising casualties and highlighting the negative consequences that the EU’s prioritization of security has on individual human lives [1]. Belarus’s instrumentalization of migrants illustrates how the EU’s commitments to its human rights values are ultimately conditional when perceived security is on the line.

In 2020, the European Union invalidated the results of the Belarusian presidential election, accusing President Alexander Lukashenko of fraudulently winning a sixth term in office and subsequently suppressing protests that challenged the electoral results [2]. As a result, the European Union imposed significant economic sanctions on Belarus and cut off diplomatic communication, effectively isolating Belarus from Western European political activity. In response, Belarusian President Lukashenko vowed to “flood the EU with drugs and migrants” [3]. Lukashenko believed that these measures would force the EU to maintain conversation with Belarus and potentially put pressure on the EU to lift the economic sanctions. 

In August 2021, hundreds of migrants from the Middle East and Africa suddenly appeared on the border between Belarus and the EU countries of Poland, Lithuania, and Latvia [4]. Not involved in the operation that led these migrants to their borders, the European Union and independent investigators [5], concluded that Belarus sponsored the transportation of these migrants from their home countries to the EU border. Belarusian authorities coordinated with numerous Middle Eastern airline companies to simplify the visa acquisition process and advertised false promises to migrants, claiming that with entry from the eastern border of the EU, they would eventually be able to seek asylum in countries such as Germany [6]. 

Belarus believed that the growing number of migrants in the border zone would put significant pressure on the EU to act in accordance with the human rights values it claims to uphold, which would require them to open the border and let the migrants seek asylum in the EU. Belarus hoped that the growing refugee crisis would force the EU to resume dialogue with Belarus by leveraging the migrants’ situation as a means to force the EU to lift the economic sanctions imposed against their country [7]. In facilitating this crisis, Belarus anticipated that the EU would have to decide between border security and the human rights obligations that they imposed on their member states. 

EU Response: Security Threat rather than Humanitarian Crisis

In response to the migrants’ attempt to cross into the EU, Poland created a 3-kilometer-long buffer zone along its border with Belarus [8]. The Polish border patrol established a “pushback” policy, driving all migrants attempting to enter Poland back into the buffer zone [9]. The Polish authorities’ practice of consistent use of pushback and restriction of asylum applications, which they justified by the need to protect the Polish border and the external border of the EU, led to a significant humanitarian crisis, as the migrants in the buffer zone did not have access to basic resources necessary for survival. The region experiences cold temperatures and periodic flooding, making it a difficult area for humanitarian organizations to reach and certainly a challenging area for migrants to establish as a “nomadic zone,” especially while the EU and Belarus remain in geopolitical conflict indefinitely. While data is scarce due to restricted access to the region, a report titled “No Safe Passage” estimates as of 2025 that the number of victims at the Belarus-Poland border exceeds 60, with an additional 400 missing [10].

Understanding the Polish Response through Human Rights Law

Poland’s pushback of migrants into the unsafe buffer zone violates Article 33 of the 1951 UN Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees, which states that “No Contracting State shall expel or return (“refouler”) a refugee in any manner whatsoever to the frontiers of territories where his life or freedom would be threatened on account of his race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular social group, or political opinion [11].” 

Article 18 of the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights, which Poland is obliged to follow, ensures that “the right to asylum shall be guaranteed with due respect for the rules of the Geneva Convention of 28 July 1951 and the Protocol of 31 January 1967 relating to the status of refugees and in accordance with the Treaty on European Union and the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union [12].” Poland’s continued pushback policy and refusal to process any asylum claims go against this legal principle and continue to endanger the lives of migrants caught at the border.

Article 3 of the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) prohibits torture and inhumane treatment, prohibiting the removal of a migrant if there is sufficient evidence showing that in the country they are sent back to there is a real threat of harm and no chance their asylum application would be seriously considered [13]. The treacherous conditions of the buffer zone and substantial evidence that the Belarusian authorities would not accept a significant number of asylum applications demonstrate that the actions taken by Poland violate Article 3 of the ECHR.

Conditionality of EU Human Rights Commitments

In 2025, despite Poland’s breach of UN and EU human rights law and growing pressure from Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) such as Oxfam International[11] and the Helsinki Foundation for Human Rights, the European Commission continues to allow the current pushback practices [14]. The EU views the actions by Belarus as a security threat and is therefore willing to excuse member states’ violations of laws such as Article 18 of the Charter of Fundamental Rights. Today, the EU asserts that Article 72 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union, which establishes that commitments to fundamental rights such as asylum may be suspended in light of significant security threats, allows Poland to continue its “pushback” policy [15].

Belarus’s creation of a deeply troubling humanitarian crisis for self-interested gains on the geopolitical stage undermines the sincerity and impartiality that the international human rights system tries to uphold. Belarus used the EU’s human rights commitments as an exploitable geopolitical weakness, treating the well-being of the migrants as a bargaining chip. Belarus was not only instrumentalizing migrants but also exploiting the law. The crisis revealed how the EU’s commitment to human rights is ultimately conditional. Growing efforts by the EU to secure their borders continue to lead to significant violations of migrants’ basic rights. 

Image Credits: https://cis-fpn.rs/the-eu-migration-policy-in-2015-and-2022-a-different-approach-to-the-same-problem/

Works Cited

[1] ReliefWeb. “Conditions Worsen for Belarus Migrants Stuck in ‘Death Zone’ at EU Border.” Accessed March 14, 2026. https://reliefweb.int/report/belarus/conditions-worsen-belarus-migrants-stuck-death-zone-eu-border

[2] Council of the European Union. “Belarus: Declaration by the High Representative on Behalf of the EU on the First Anniversary of the 9 August 2020 Fraudulent Presidential Elections in Belarus.” August 8, 2021. https://www.consilium.europa.eu/en/press/press-releases/2021/08/08/belarus-declaration-by-the-high-representative-on-behalf-of-the-eu-on-the-first-anniversary-of-the-9-august-2020-fraudulent-presidential-elections-in-belarus/

[3] Council of the European Union. “Sanctions Against Belarus.” Accessed March 14, 2026. https://www.consilium.europa.eu/en/policies/sanctions-against-belarus/

[4] Daily Mail. “Belarus Threatens to Flood Europe with Migrants and Drugs in Response to Sanctions.” Accessed March 14, 2026. https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9620727/Belarus-threatens-flood-Europe-migrants-drugs-response-sanctions.html

[5] Human Rights Watch. “Die Here or Go to Poland: Belarus’ and Poland’s Shared Responsibility for Border Abuses.” November 24, 2021. https://www.hrw.org/report/2021/11/24/die-here-or-go-poland/belarus-and-polands-shared-responsibility-border-abuses

[6] Reuters. “How Belarus Became a Gateway to the EU for Middle East Migrants.” November 9, 2021. https://www.reuters.com/world/how-belarus-became-gateway-eu-middle-east-migrants-2021-11-09/

[7] Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. “The EU’s Latest Migrant Crisis: Will Belarus Get Its Way?” November 2021. https://carnegieendowment.org/posts/2021/11/the-eus-latest-migrant-crisis-will-belarus-get-its-way?lang=en

[8] Human Rights Watch. “Poland: Brutal Pushbacks at Belarus Border.” December 10, 2024. https://www.hrw.org/news/2024/12/10/poland-brutal-pushbacks-belarus-border

[9] Ocalenie Foundation. No Safe Passage: Migrant Deaths at the European Union–Belarusian Border. March 2025. https://ocalenie.org.pl/wp-content/uploads/2025/03/eng_no-safe-passage.-migrants-deaths-at-the-european-union-belarusian-border-1.pdf

[10] United Nations. “Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees.” 1951. https://www.ohchr.org/en/instruments-mechanisms/instruments/convention-relating-status-refugees

[11] European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights. “Article 18 – Right to Asylum.” Accessed March 14, 2026. https://fra.europa.eu/en/eu-charter/article/18-right-asylum

[12] Council of Europe. “The European Convention on Human Rights and Its Protocols.” Accessed March 14, 2026. https://www.coe.int/en/web/compass/the-european-convention-on-human-rights-and-its-protocols

[13] Oxfam. “Trapped, Pushed Back and Tortured: Poland’s Crackdown on Refugees at Europe’s Border.” Accessed April 3, 2026. https://www.oxfam.org/en/press-releases/trapped-pushed-back-and-tortured-polands-crackdown-refugees-europes-border

[14] Helsinki Foundation for Human Rights. “Pushbacks Must End Immediately: NGOs Appeal to the Prime Minister.” Accessed April 3, 2026. https://hfhr.pl/en/news/pushbacks-must-end-immediately-ngos-appeal-to-the-prime-minister-

[15] European Union. “Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union, Article 72.” 2016. https://eur-lex.europa.eu/eli/treaty/tfeu_2016/art_72/oj/eng