Dear Students,
We warmly welcome you to join us on October the 15th for a very important debate on the humanitarian crisis on the Polish-Belarusian border, where some of our academic staff will be taking part.
Since June 2021, the Eastern border of the EU with Belarus has seen a dramatic increase in irregular crossings, from just over 100 in 2020, to 11,500 to date in Poland in 2021, mainly of refugees and migrants from Iraq and Afghanistan.
Governments in Warsaw, Riga and Vilnius have issued a joint statement about Lukashenko’s hybrid warfare tactics and ‘artificially created migrant route with Putin’s support’ in what is said to be a clear weaponization of migrants for political purposes, and the need for a strong, unified EU response to this security threat. The result has been a large military deployment to border zones, the erection of barbed-wire fences, government-sanctioned push-backs and, to date, 6 deaths of migrants in the dense forests between Belarusian and Polish border authorities.
The European Court of Human Rights has called on Poland and Latvia to provide humanitarian assistance to those caught in between these zones, and Amnesty International and the UNHCR have condemned the push-backs. In a tense political and social climate, wherein a state of emergency along the border has effectively cordoned off the area to media and NGOs, there are many questions left unanswered.
This panel attempts to broach some of the most pressing ones and from various angles, amongst others focusing on the patterns of border and migration securitization, the role of the EU and Frontex, the role and interpretation of human rights and refugee laws and conventions, the reasons for and possible solutions to the acute humanitarian crisis, as well as the tense international and internal political confrontation which has developed.
The webinar will take place on Friday, October 15th, 2021, at 3:00 p.m. - 4:30 p.m. on the Facebook profile of the Multicultural Centre in Kraków. The event will be conducted in English.
Our guests include:
- Dr Katarzyna Przybysławska - lawyer, director of the Halina Nieć Legal Aid Center in Krakow, a part of the ‘Grupa Granica’ (ad hoc network of NGOs working at the Polish-Belarusian border).
- Dr Marta Jaroszewicz is Assistant Professor at the Centre for Migration Research, University of Warsaw, and previously a senior research fellow at the Centre for Eastern Studies.
- Dr Przemysław Tacik - holds a PhD in Philosophy and International Law, Assistant Professor in the Institute of European Studies, Jagiellonian University.
- Dr Maciej Stępka - holds a PhD in Security Studies (University of Warsaw). Assistant Professor in the Institute of European Studies at Jagiellonian University in Kraków.
- Moderator: dr Karolina Czerska-Shaw (PhD in Sociology, Assistant Professor JU, Multicultural Centre in Krakow).
Organizers: Multicultural Center in Krakow and Global Trends Lab as part of FutureSocieties POB (Jagiellonian University): https://futuresoc.id.uj.edu.pl/gtl.
Join our discussion and ask your questions. Hope to see you with us!