Thread by @astroehlein

In the Belarus border case, there were 'only' thousands of people concerned, and Poland's authorities, with the EU fully behind them, couldn't even deal with the situation properly - failing to recognize basic, long-existing human rights standards...

politico.eu/article/war-uk…

Instead, even with those relatively manageable numbers, the EU chose to lie to give Warsaw cover to break the law, sending people back to deadly danger and making a bad humanitarian situation worse.

hrw.org/news/2021/12/0…

Honestly, that doesn’t bode well for a “worst-case”, “big-numbers” scenario in Ukraine, does it?

So, what should Poland and the EU do to prepare?

How about read up on their obligations under international refugee law and determine this time to act as if EU values meant something?

Specifically, Poland & the EU should:

1⃣ Plan to NOT return people back to danger like they did last time.

2⃣ Plan to NOT ban access to aid groups like they did last time.

3⃣ Plan to NOT ban media from covering the area like they did last time.

If Poland & the EU are now doing contingency planning for refugee flows in the event of a worst-case scenario in #Ukraine, they need to learn from their illegal & indecent actions on the Belarus border.

In short: plan to put human life first this time.

hrw.org/news/2021/11/2…