ELIL’s Work Supporting Chechen Families: An Interview with Our Lawyer Weronika
We spoke to our lawyer Weronika about the long, complex work that she does supporting families from Chechnya who have been living in Poland for many years with an uncertain legal status. She is one of the only lawyers in Poland who specialises in supporting these families to regularise their stay with humanitarian grounds or tolerated stay. Drawing on extensive hands-on experience, Weronika reflects on the realities of asylum and residence procedures, the systemic challenges within migration systems, and the human impact of prolonged insecurity, particularly on children and long-settled families.
What work have you done to support families from Chechnya in Poland? How did you start doing this work? How many people have you supported since you started?
Some Chechen citizens are in the same situation as the rest of the people we support – they are submitting their first application for international protection and the procedures are ongoing. Most often, decisions to refuse international protection are issued. Although I believe that in one case, in which we have been waiting for a decision from the second instance authority (the Refugee Council) for 1.5 years, a positive decision will be made due to abuse by the ex-husband. However, most cases of this type involve people who have been applying repeatedly and unsuccessfully for international protection for years (even 10), and therefore other legal action must be taken to secure their status in Poland. These people usually have return decisions issued several years ago, but they have not been made to leave Poland, so they stay in a legal limbo. Here, we apply for residence on humanitarian grounds or tolerated stay, which are issued in return obligation procedures. The most difficult thing here is to convince the Border Guards to re-examine these grounds (which should be the rule – if we have very old obligations to return, e.g. from 2017 and 2018, the Border Guards themselves should look at the grounds for granting a residence permit on humanitarian grounds or a tolerated stay). Huge thanks and appreciation to the Ombudsman for Children’s Rights (Rzecznik Praw Dziecka) (). I believe that without their extensive efforts and enormous help, many people would still be in their previous situation, without legal residence. The Ombudsman (Rzecznik Praw Obywatelskich) also helps in such matters.
I can't say how many people I've supported in this way, but it's a lot.
Why is this work important?
These individuals have been in a precarious legal situation for years. They are permitted to work occasionally (six months after initiating the procedure for granting international protection). Furthermore, the children have often already integrated into Polish society, know the Polish language and culture, and some of them have never been to their country of origin because they were born in Poland.
What are common challenges that you face in your work with Chechen cases?
Prolonged procedures for legalising residence. If there are children, it is easier to convince the Border Guard to consider reasons for residence on humanitarian or tolerated stay. If the person has no children or has adult children, it is much more difficult. However, there are such cases. Most often due to the illness of an adult, which prevents travel to Chechnya or another country of origin, and when there is no adequate treatment available there. Although, in my personal opinion, the problem in such cases is not a lack of goodwill on the part of individual officers, because very often this goodwill is there, and Border Guard officers usually show great empathy towards people who have been in Poland for so long and find themselves without legal status. The problem lies in systemic issues that cannot be changed by a single person.
This is not an excuse, because organizational issues at the office or the Border Guard cannot negatively affect the situation of foreigners, but it must be emphasized that officials at the Office for Foreigners and Border Guard officers are overworked.
What have you learnt over your years of doing this work?
That there are cases in which, despite meeting the conditions for residence on humanitarian or tolerated stay, it is extremely difficult to persuade the Border Guard to look into the case (which does not mean that it is impossible). This work certainly teaches patience.
What are some successes that you have seen?
When I started working at the centre in Białystok, practically all of the residents were Chechens. Now, thanks to the fact that many individuals and families have been able to legalise their stay, Chechens are actually in the minority.
Are there one or two particular cases that stick in your mind? Can you tell us a bit about them?
A mother (aged almost 60), her adult son and adult daughter, and her daughter's children.
They had been in Poland for many years, but were unable to legalise their stay in any way. Due to the protracted proceedings, the mother began to have trouble sleeping and required psychological support. The biggest problem here was probably that the woman's daughters and son were of legal age. However, Border Guard looked into the family's case and granted them humanitarian residence. To be honest, I did not believe it would work (I thought it would only work for the daughter and her children, as her husband had legal residence in Poland). After receiving a positive decision, the mother burst into tears and thanked me for my legal assistance every time she saw me.
But in principle, every case involving families with children who have been in Poland for years and have been unable to obtain legal residence deserves special attention.