A/HRC/50/31 Greece reportedly deterred over 140,000 people from entering the country between April and November 2021, and has announced an extension to a fence in the Evros region. 42 In the Aegean Sea, NGOs have documented at least 147 incidents of the forcible return of 7,000 migrants, including children, to Turkey by the Hellenic Coast Guard, without due process.43 1. Imposition of state of emergency measures 33. In 2021, state-of-emergency measures were increasingly applied along the external border of the European Union with Belarus, similar to the repeated government orders in Hungary since 2016 to respond to a “crisis situation caused by mass immigration”. 44 The Special Rapporteur notes with concern that the Governments of Latvia, Lithuania and Poland have responded to an increase in migrant arrivals from Belarus by “suspending” nonrefoulement obligations, limiting access to protection under international refugee and human rights law and restricting the access of humanitarian actors, civil society, lawyers and journalists to the border areas, while disregarding interim measures issued by the European Court of Human Rights. Additionally, in December 2021, the European Commission published a proposal aimed at supporting Latvia, Lithuania and Poland by establishing a set of emergency measures at external borders. If adopted, the proposal would allow States to apply accelerated border procedures to determine the admissibility of applications and provide simplified return procedures for asylum seekers, while delaying the registration of applications for international protection for up to a month. The proposal would also enable limited provision of only basic material reception conditions. 45 34. In Latvia, Order No. 518 of 10 August 2021 introduced a state of emergency in some areas along the border and suspended access to asylum and other human rights protections by instructing that applications for refugee or “alternative” status “shall not be accepted by units of the State Border Guard and other institutions located in the territory where the emergency situation has been declared”.46 35. Meanwhile, in Lithuania, an order by the Ministry of the Interior allowed the State Border Guard to deny entry and to push back all migrants arriving from Belarus. Subsequent changes to the national law on the legal status of aliens enable the suspension, in exceptional circumstances, of the right to apply for asylum for those who cross the border irregularly.47 Additional deterrence measures followed in November 2021, when a state of emergency restricting access to the border area for humanitarian aid and media workers was declared, while, in December 2021, the length of immigration detention for asylum seekers was extended to up to one year.48 In the second half of 2021, approximately 8,000 pushbacks were reportedly carried out.49 36. In Poland, two ministerial regulations issued in August 2021 enable the Border Guard to instruct all migrants who have entered Polish territory without authorization to immediately leave the territory, and to return them to the State border, without regard for individual protection needs.50 Amendments to the Act on Foreigners in October 2021 further simplified the procedure for issuing a decision to expel asylum seekers from Poland and to prohibit re-entry.51 At the same time, since September 2021, the Government has also taken various steps to restrict access to border territories for human rights and humanitarian actors, 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 8 should not remove the group from its jurisdiction, and should guarantee adequate conditions The Government reportedly complied with the decision. See https://www.humanrights360.org/a-positiveoutcome-of-the-case-of-the-30-syrian-refugees-confined-on-the-islet-of-evros-river/. See submission by Equal Legal Aid. World Organisation against Torture (OMCT) submission, para. 24. A/HRC/47/30, para. 80. 2021/0401(CNS), “Provisional emergency measures for the benefit of Latvia, Lithuania and Poland”. See submission by Latvia. See communication LTU 1/2021. See submission by Sienos Grupė. Ibid. See submission by the Helsinki Foundation for Human Rights. For the last five months of 2021, the statistics of the Polish Border Guard indicate that they prevented entry in at least 39,670 instances. In March 2022, the District Court in Bielsk Podlaski reportedly found the pushback of three migrants in August 2021, carried out on the basis of these regulations, unlawful and inhumane. See https://interwencjaprawna.pl/en/pushbacks-are-inhumane-illegal-and-based-on-illegal-regulation/. See submission by the Commissioner for Human Rights of Poland.