Poland allows border guards to shoot at illegal migrants

The new law exempts servicemen from criminal liability for employing live fire, President Andrzej Duda has said

Polish President Andrzej Duda has signed legislation that expands the use of weapons by the military, police, and border guards, and exempts them from criminal liability for employing live fire, his office has said.

Duda approved the ‘Act on Support for the Activities of Soldiers and Officers’ on Wednesday as Poland celebrated Armed Forces Day, the head of the presidential office, Malgorzata Paprocka, announced on Thursday.

The new law allows the military to take part in operations within the country in peacetime and sets out the rules for the use of firearms in these situations by troops.

Among other things, it introduces an amendment to the Polish Criminal Code that excludes criminal liability if a soldier guarding the border fires a weapon in order to protect their life or the life of another person, even if it is done in violation of the existing rules.

According to Duda, the legislation “will allow the border and other places to be protected even better, even more efficiently, while also increasing the safety of the Polish soldier.”

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The country’s parliament, the Sejm, passed the bill mid-July, a month and a half after a Polish soldier succumbed to his injuries after being stabbed by a migrant through the fence erected by Warsaw on the border with Belarus. In June, three Polish troops were detained for firing warning shots at the border. Two of them faced accusations of abuse of power and endangering the lives of others.

The Council of Europe’s commissioner for human rights, Michael O’Flaherty, urged Warsaw against introducing the changes, saying in a letter that “international law requires states to reduce as far as possible the adverse consequences of the use of force.” The law could lead to the disproportionate use of force and abusive incidents not being properly investigated, O’Flaherty warned.

The leader of The Left parliamentary group, Anna Maria Zukowska, was also among the critics of the legislation, saying in the Sejm that it violates the constitution. According to Poland’s principal law, the priority is the protection of human life, not the border, she argued.

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An influx of migrants on the Poland-Belarus border has continued since 2021. Warsaw has accused Minsk of deliberately organizing asylum seekers from Africa and the Middle East and sending them towards Poland in what it calls “hybrid actions aimed at destabilizing Poland and other EU member states.” The authorities in Minsk have denied these claims.