What Is Poland's Controversial New Firearms Bill About? (image: unsplash/Dario Daniel Silva)

Poland’s parliament on Friday approved controversial law allowing border guards to use firearms in self-defence under certain circumstances. The legislation, however, has sparked significant debate and criticism from human rights groups.

This new legal measure came into effect in the wake of fatal incident occurred last month where a 21-year-old soldier was killed while trying to prevent migrants from entering Poland illegally. The new law is pertinent to protect the country’s border with Belarus from increasingly aggressive gangs of migrants, the Polish government said.

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Meanwhile, the NGOs and the Council of Europe’s Commissioner for Human Rights, Michael O’Flaherty, have criticised the law as a violation of human rights standards. O’Flaherty forewarns that these legal measures may encourage border patrols to excessive force and impede the proper investigation of such incidents. Human rights groups and critics demands for the reconsideration of the policy changes in order to avoid potential abuses.

“It may also lead to a situation where the circumstances in which the arbitrary use of force or firearms by state agents may result in the loss of life or bodily harm are not properly investigated, particularly in cases where the victims are on the other side of the border,” O’Flaherty wrote in a letter to the Polish authorities.

But, it seems public support Prime Minister Donald Tusk’s stringent stance on border security, as one poll conducted on last month found 86% support the use of firearms by soldiers to repel migrant attacks.

In a separate letter to Prime Minister, O’Flaherty stated that 7,317 people had been summarily returned to Belarus, in some cases after they had requested asylum in Poland, between December 2023 and June 2024. To his appeal to halt the practice of migrant pushbacks, Deputy Interior Minister Maciej Duszczyk stated that the practice is “a proportionate reaction”, and added that migrants who asked for international protection were not being returned.

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Mr Duszczyk also ascertained that the new government has adopted a principle of “zero deaths at the border”; 1,319 migrants who entered Poland illegally in the past three years have received treatment in Polish hospitals, he argued.

Besides, non-permanent intervention teams formed in February to search for people lost in forests and swamps have helped 84 people succeffully, he said.

However, as per NGOs reports, 130 migrants have died in the border zone in Belarus and neighbouring three EU countries – Poland, Lithuania and Latvia over the past three years, many surrendering to exposure in sub-zero temperatures or drowning in marshy areas.

(with inputs from BBC)