Amnesty International has accused Poland of illegally pushing back asylum-seekers into Belarus.
According to the group, Polish authorities pushed back a group of 32 Afghan asylum-seekers in late August.
The group included a 15-year-old girl.
It said that satellite imagery and photographs showed that the group was on the Polish side of the border on August 18 before being “moved overnight” to the Belarusian side.
“Amnesty International believes that this movement may be evidence of an illegal push-back, as it appears to have occurred while armed Polish border guards surrounded the refugees’ makeshift camp,” it said in a statement.
“Poland has been blocking this group of people at the border in deplorable conditions for weeks. Our analysis proves conclusively that their position has changed from Poland to Belarus overnight on 18 August and that they were therefore probably victims of unlawful forcible removal,” Eve Geddie, Director of Amnesty International’s Office to the European Institutions, said in a statement.
Last week, an Iraqi man died on the border between Poland and Belarus.
The Iraqi migrant is the fifth migrant to die at the border between Poland and Belarus.
Polish authorities said it happened as they detained a group of migrants from Iraq. The incident took place near the Belarusian border on Thursday night.
“One of the me died probably of a heart attack,” the Polish Border Guard said in a statement.
It brings the death toll to five people since the start of the migration crisis this summer.
Most of the migrants come from Iraq, Afghanistan, and African nations, according to Reuters.
