Central Europe: Declining Arrivals, Surging Antagonism

Abstract

A hallmark of all three countries included in the Central Europe chapter—the Czech Republic, Poland, and Slovakia—is that official rhetoric and public attitudes towards undocumented migrants and asylum seekers have grown increasingly hostile even as the numbers of arrivals have plummeted across the region. This post “crisis” mood also pervades the countries’ evolving immigration control policies and detention practices. All three countries have adopted the maximum 18 months detention limit provided in the European Union (EU) Returns Directive, which is intended to serve as a ceiling and not an obligation (other EU countries, including Spain and France, have opted for much lower detention limits). In practice, the average detention time in all three countries appears to be less than 80 days. Another distinct feature of the policies in these countries is that they all require detainees to pay for their own detention. This appears to be a harsher policy than that applied to prisoners in penal institutions and may contravene obligations under international human rights law regarding non-discrimination. Also, in all three countries “alternatives to detention” are rarely offered because of the widespread perception that they serve as transit states along routes into Western Europe, which increases the risk of absconding. All three countries also appear to place children in detention even when this is restricted under their domestic legislation. This has been denounced by UN human rights treaty monitoring bodies and regional and national human rights institutions. Czech and Polish laws outlaw detention of children below 15 and consider accompanied children as merely “accompanying” their parents in detention. Another markedly distinct feature shared by all the three countries is how their stated policy objectives are harsher than what is provided in EU regulations and policies. Along with Hungary, these three countries make what is known as the “Visegrad Group,” which is known for its opposition to Brussels policies, in particular as regards migrants and refugees. These countries—many of whose citizens sought refuge elsewhere in Europe while under Soviet rule during the Cold War—refused quotas for relocation of migrants and refugees from Italy and Greece and their anti-Muslim discourse frequently targets German and French asylum and integration policies as examples not to follow.