Following the entry into force of the EU’s New Pact on Migration and Asylum, human rights groups in Latvia, Lithuania, and Poland urged their governments to review migrant pushback practices on the border with Belarus, BNS reported. In a joint statement, Latvia’s I Want to Help Refugees (GPB), Lithuania’s Sienos Grupe, and Poland’s Association for Legal Intervention (SIP) called on the governments to ensure that implementation of the new rules fully complies with human rights standards and international law. “Migration policy cannot be based on fear or short-term political considerations,” the organisations stated. The groups pointed out that collective expulsions were still prohibited under EU law, stressed that migrants should be detained only as a last resort, and called for effective legal aid and right to work for migrants.
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