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POLAND CARRIES OUT PROBE OF DETENTION CENTRES FOR ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS FOLLOWING COMPLAINTS
Victoria Times Colonist
Nov 5 2012
BC
By Monika Scislowska, The Associated PressNovember 5, 2012
WARSAW, Poland - Poland's Interior Ministry is working with human
rights organizations to investigate allegations of mistreatment of
illegal immigrants in detention centres, the ministry said Monday.
A Georgian and an Iranian woman have complained to Polish media of
prison-like conditions, intrusive searches, humiliating treatment
by armed guards, inadequate medical care and lack of education for
children. They said immigrants were being held for months and that
27 Georgian and Armenian inmates recently held a hunger strike in
protest. Letters from Ekaterina Lemondjava, from Georgia, and Leila
Naimi from Iran, were recently published by Gazeta Wyborcza daily.
Ministry spokeswoman Malgorzata Wozniak told The Associated Press that
officials and watchdog groups, including the Helsinki Foundation for
Human Rights, will visit five centres where foreigners who entered EU
member Poland illegally are being held pending a decision on whether
they will be deported or allowed to stay. She said the government
and the watchdog group will publish separate reports from the visits.
Their conclusions will be taken into account in a new law on foreigners
being currently worked out.
Wozniak said no complaints of irregularities or of "shameful treatment"
have been reported by various watchdog groups, which have been
regularly visiting the centres. However, a preliminary visit last
week in Lesznowola, near Warsaw, found substandard living conditions
in a centre that needs to be renovated and have its children's play
room expanded, but it found no abuse, Wozniak said.
Maj. Justyna Szmidt-Grzech, spokeswoman for the Border Guards, who run
the detention centres, said that foreigners are sent there after they
violate Poland's immigration law. Most often they ask for permission
to stay, but leave Poland for Western Europe without waiting for
a decision. They are detained when deported back to Poland, often
without any documents.
http://www.timescolonist.com/news/Poland+carries+probe+detention+centres+illegal+imm igrants+following/7498467/story.html
Victoria Times Colonist
Nov 5 2012
BC
By Monika Scislowska, The Associated PressNovember 5, 2012
WARSAW, Poland - Poland's Interior Ministry is working with human
rights organizations to investigate allegations of mistreatment of
illegal immigrants in detention centres, the ministry said Monday.
A Georgian and an Iranian woman have complained to Polish media of
prison-like conditions, intrusive searches, humiliating treatment
by armed guards, inadequate medical care and lack of education for
children. They said immigrants were being held for months and that
27 Georgian and Armenian inmates recently held a hunger strike in
protest. Letters from Ekaterina Lemondjava, from Georgia, and Leila
Naimi from Iran, were recently published by Gazeta Wyborcza daily.
Ministry spokeswoman Malgorzata Wozniak told The Associated Press that
officials and watchdog groups, including the Helsinki Foundation for
Human Rights, will visit five centres where foreigners who entered EU
member Poland illegally are being held pending a decision on whether
they will be deported or allowed to stay. She said the government
and the watchdog group will publish separate reports from the visits.
Their conclusions will be taken into account in a new law on foreigners
being currently worked out.
Wozniak said no complaints of irregularities or of "shameful treatment"
have been reported by various watchdog groups, which have been
regularly visiting the centres. However, a preliminary visit last
week in Lesznowola, near Warsaw, found substandard living conditions
in a centre that needs to be renovated and have its children's play
room expanded, but it found no abuse, Wozniak said.
Maj. Justyna Szmidt-Grzech, spokeswoman for the Border Guards, who run
the detention centres, said that foreigners are sent there after they
violate Poland's immigration law. Most often they ask for permission
to stay, but leave Poland for Western Europe without waiting for
a decision. They are detained when deported back to Poland, often
without any documents.
http://www.timescolonist.com/news/Poland+carries+probe+detention+centres+illegal+imm igrants+following/7498467/story.html