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Children’s Ombudsman visits Polish-Belarusian border

In a meeting of Europe’s children’s ombudsmen in Athens, Mikołaj Pawlak, the Polish Children’s Ombudsman presented the problem of child abuse in the migration conflict and called for international help to ensure their safety. Immediately after the meeting he went to the border with Belarus.

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According to Mr Pawlak, families with children who enter Poland and ask for the international protection procedure are referred to centers for foreigners, where they await decisions of the Office for Foreigners.

Migrants who do not agree to be placed in the Polish centers for foreigners are legally transferred to the Belarusian side in safe conditions, after providing them with medical assistance, food and clothing. The Ombudsman for Children did not record cases of leaving migrants “in the forest or in the swamp,” as reported by some media.

However, he confirmed cases of children being used by the Belarusian services and migrants in order to persuade the Border Guard officers to withdraw them from detention. Children are, among other things, made to undress so they get cold.

The Ombudsman has been monitoring the situation since the beginning of the migration crisis. “Thanks to direct contact with the Border Guard, it was possible to save a family of migrants from Congo a few days ago, who illegally crossed the Polish border and got lost in a marshy area in the forest,” his office reported.

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“After being informed of the situation, the Ombudsman for Children contacted the Border Guard at night and provided the GPS location of the lost group. The officers took the family out of the dangerous area and provided them with medical and humanitarian aid,” the office added.

The Children’s Ombudsman office said that cases of violence against migrants, including children, by officials of the Belarusian services had been reported. The information provided by migrants shows that there were cases of beatings and forcing people to cross the border with Poland in dangerous, marshy areas. There were also cases of the Belarusian side supplying migrants with tools like wire cutters and ladders.

The Children’s Ombudsman found it unacceptable to publish the images of children, protected, inter alia, by the provisions on the protection of personal data. He appealed to Polish media, politicians and users of social networking sites to respect the right of migrants, especially children, to privacy. He also found the media attacks on the officers of the Polish Border Guard to be groundless and harmful, based on false information and manipulation, often deliberately disseminated by Belarus and Russia.

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