EU says states can limit asylum rights for migrants ‘weaponised’ by Russia

BRUSSELS: The European Union said Wednesday that member states bordering Russia and Belarus can limit the right of asylum for migrants in the event of their “weaponisation” by Moscow and Minsk.

EU states along the bloc’s eastern edge have accused Russia and its ally Belarus of pushing thousands of migrants over their borders in recent years as part of a campaign to destabilise Europe.

Countries including Poland, the Baltic states and Finland have sought to bolster their powers to halt arrivals despite concerns such moves conflict with the right to claim asylum enshrined in EU law.

European Commission vice president Henna Virkkunen said Brussels was now specifying that member states could limit asylum rights when the “weaponisation” became a security threat, but only under “strict conditions”.

“It means that they have to be truly exceptional, temporary, proportionate and for clearly defined cases,” she said.

Migrants, mainly from the Middle East and Africa, began arriving in large numbers across the Belarus border with Poland in 2021 as the EU looked to punish Minsk for a crackdown on opposition.

The phenomenon increased and spread to Russia as tensions soared after Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022. “Autocrats must never be allowed to use our European values against us,” European Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen wrote on X as the measures were announced.

Brussels says that in 2024, irregular arrivals at the EU-Belarus border increased by 66 percent compared to 2023. The EU says 90 percent of migrants illegally crossing the Poland-Belarus border have a Russian student or tourist visa.

“What we are seeing today is of an exceptional nature,” Virkkunen said. Brussels also said it was giving 170 million euros to six border states to improve their frontier surveillance.

Poland has taken a hard line on migrants, including building a metal barrier along the border and stepping up patrols. But rights groups accuse police of violently stopping migrants, with some suffering injuries inflicted by dog bites or rubber bullets.

“Polish law enforcement is unlawfully, and sometimes violently, forcing people trying to enter the country back to Belarus without considering their protection needs,” Human Rights Watch said. Finland’s parliament in July adopted controversial legislation that would allow guards to turn away asylum seekers at the border under certain circumstances.