Press releases Special Procedures

UN expert to assess situation of migrants and refugees in Poland and Belarus

13 July 2022

GENEVA (13 July 2022) – The United Nations Special Rapporteur on the human rights of migrants, Felipe González Morales, has started an official visit to Poland and Belarus.

From 12 to 15 July and 21 to 25 July, he will be in Poland, assessing the situation of migrants and refugees in the country.

The expert’s visit to Belarus will take place from 16 to 20 July, and will focus on the situation of migrants at the border between the two countries.

In Poland, the Special Rapporteur will hold meetings in Warsaw, Podlaskie, Lublin and Subcarpathian Voivodeships with relevant governmental authorities, the judiciary, the National Human Rights Institution, United Nations agencies, civil society organisations, and migrants and refugees. González Morales will also assess the situation of migrants and refugees, including those refugees who fled Ukraine and those who entered from the Belarusian side of the border. He will examine the country’s current laws, policies and practices, and their impact on the human rights of all migrants.

The expert will visit Poland’s border areas with Belarus and Ukraine, border crossing points, border guard posts, registration and processing centres, asylum reception centres, immigration detention facilities, including those for children and families, as well as other temporary reception facilities.

The Special Rapporteur will cross the land border to Belarus, where he will meet with Belarusian governmental authorities, United Nations agencies, civil society organisations and migrants in Grodno and Minsk. He will share his preliminary observations and recommendations with the authorities in Belarus on Wednesday, 20 July.

At the end of his visit to Poland, González Morales will share his preliminary conclusions and recommendations with the authorities in Poland on Monday, 25 July.

A press conference about the visit will be held online on Thursday, 28 July at 12:00 (CEST). To register for the press conference please contact: hrc-sr-migrant@un.org. Access is strictly limited to journalists.

The Special Rapporteur will present his reports to the Human Rights Council in June 2023.

ENDS

Mr. Felipe González Morales (Chile) was appointed Special Rapporteur on the human rights of migrantsin June 2017 by the UN Human Rights Council, for an initial period of three years. His mandate was renewed for three additional years in June 2020. As a Special Rapporteur, he is independent from any government or organization and serves in his individual capacity. He is Professor of International Law at the Diego Portales University, in Santiago, Chile, where he is also the Director of a Master’s programme in International Human Rights Law.

The Special Rapporteurs are part of what is known as the Special Procedures of the Human Rights Council. Special Procedures, the largest body of independent experts in the UN Human Rights system, is the general name of the Council’s independent fact-finding and monitoring mechanisms that address either specific country situations or thematic issues in all parts of the world. Special Procedures experts work on a voluntary basis; they are not UN staff and do not receive a salary for their work. They are independent from any government or organization and serve in their individual capacity.

UN Human Rights country page – Poland and Belarus

For more information and media requests, please contact: Ms. Yiyao Zhang (+41 079 874 7790 yiyao.zhang@un.org) and Ms. Clara Burriel Pérez (consultant.burrielperez@un.org)

For media inquiries related to other UN independent experts please contact Jeremy Laurence  (+41 79 444 7578 / (jeremy.laurence@un.org) or Dharisha Indraguptha (+41 79 506 1088 / dharisha.indraguptha@un.org)

Follow news related to the UN’s independent human rights experts on Twitter @UN_SPExperts.

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