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Description
As part of the project, we are reaching out to people detained in Detention Centres for Foreigners, especially those who have experienced torture or other forms of violence, as well as people who have been wrongfully detained. We provide legal assistance or representation (including the cases brought to the European Court of Human Rights), and psychological consultations for people who require special support and compensation. In order to increase the effectiveness of our actions and reduce the suffering, we offer psychological assistance. People staying in Detention Centres for Foreigners are at risk of systemic violations of their right to individual freedom, fair procedures, respect for family and private life and freedom from torture or other inhuman or degrading treatment. Due to limited contact with the outside world, a language barrier or being unfamiliar with the regulations, such persons have few opportunities to obtain legal assistance. In 2020, district courts in Grójec and Kętrzyn supported all requests of the Border Guard to prolong the detention of foreigners. At the same time, in the court in Grójec only in 1.5% of cases a defence counsel was appointed ex officio (in Kętrzyn it was 0% of cases). The above mentioned data indicate a serious gap in the system of defending rights of people detained in Detention Centres for Foreigners. We want to provide legal assistance for 100 persons detained in two centres: in Lesznowola (a centre for men) and in Kętrzyn (a centre for women, families and unaccompanied minors). In 2020, 162 people stayed in Lesznowola (average length of stay was 94 days – the second longest in Poland) and 149 people stayed in Kętrzyn (average length of stay: 74 days). Our activities also have a broader social dimension. By disseminating the results of the project, we want to raise awareness about human rights violations in Detention Centres for Foreigners.
Summary of project results
The aim of the project entitled “Into the Freedom” was to ensure compliance with the right to personal freedom of persons placed in the Guarded Center for Foreigners. The project was intended to increase the availability of legal assistance to foreigners detained in guarded centers and to increase the degree of respect for their procedural rights.
Migrants and refugees staying in guarded centers for foreigners (SOC) are in a situation of particular vulnerability and are exposed to the risk of systemic violations of their rights to personal freedom, fair procedure, respect for family and private life and freedom from torture and other inhuman or degrading treatment. They have limited contact with the outside world, including limited ability to obtain legal assistance. Additionally, the language barrier and ignorance of the law often prevent them from effectively protecting their rights. Providing support and legal representation allows for increasing the level of protection of their rights, as well as eliminating the imbalance of knowledge and resources between foreigners deprived of their liberty and Border Guard officers.
The lack of an adequate system for identifying vulnerable people, the unavailability of appropriate assistance and legal representation results in the illegal stay of particularly sensitive people in the SOC in Lesznowola and Kętrzyn, including people who have experienced torture or other forms of violence, people whose psychophysical condition prevents detention, children . Due to the illegal deprivation of liberty in the Social Security Center in Kętrzyn and the Social Security Center in Lesznowola of children and foreigners who suffered violence, several judgments were passed awarding compensation. All cases concluded before the ECtHR resulted in the recognition that Poland had violated the human rights of foreigners. Due to the relatively small number of professional attorneys representing pro bono migrants and refugees, this number remains inadequate to the scale of violations.
As part of the project, we provided individual legal assistance to people placed in and released from these centers (we supported a total of 245 people). The aim of the support was to provide individual legal assistance and identify particularly vulnerable people, and then provide them with legal representation before courts and tribunals in order to be released from the center, obtain compensation for unfair deprivation of liberty and have the authorities admit that their rights have been violated (before the European Court of Justice). Human Rights). We submitted 5 complaints to the European Court of Human Rights and 3 applications for compensation for unfair deprivation of liberty.
An important aspect of the project was also to increase public support for the protection of human rights of foreigners detained in guarded centers. Intensified communication activities and improving the quality of published information and posts in social media translated into increased public support for the activities undertaken by SIP and other organizations, even to a greater extent than expected when preparing the project - there were more communication activities, they were carried out more often and were of much better quality than before.
The project also contributed to increasing the knowledge of professionals - employees of non-governmental organizations, institutions, e.g. the Office of the Commissioner for Human Rights, and lawyers and legal advisors - in the area of effective and ineffective litigation strategies and the latest case law regarding detention.
Institutional development was also an important element of the project. Thanks to the creation of a fundraising strategy, it was possible to plan and implement activities aimed at diversifying the organization''s sources of income, which are already bringing the first positive effects (e.g. we managed to collect more than twice as much funds under the 1.5% income tax in 2023).
The publication of posts about detention on social media and the great interest in the live video about detention (in total, the video was played 956 times) contributed to achieving the result of increasing public support for the protection of human rights of people with experience of detention.
The results of increasing the legal awareness of people in detention and increasing the availability of legal assistance to foreigners in SOC or with experience of detention (legal advice database) were achieved to a greater extent than expected in the project application, because instead of 100 clients, we managed to provide support legal services to as many as 245 people.
The information published on the association''s website and posts in social media run by the organization as well as a meeting for professionals, whose participants assessed that as a result of participation in during the meeting, their level of knowledge in the area of strategic litigation (including selected case law) increased.
The result of increasing the level of respect for the procedural rights of persons in SOC was achieved by submitting an application for compensation for unlawful detention in a guarded center for foreigners in the last reporting period (however, from the beginning of the project to September 30, 2023, a total of 5 complaints were submitted to ECtHR and 3 applications for compensation).