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II. STATUS OF OBSERVANCE OF UKRAINIAN MIGRANT WORKERS’ RIGHTS IN THE RECEIVING COUNTRIES

2. REPUBLIC OF POLAND

After the Russian Federation, Poland is the second country absorbing the largest number of Ukrainian migrant workers. According to official data, about six million persons cross the Ukrainian-Polish border every year. Ukrainian migration to Poland is not homogeneous in its pattern and purpose. It involves several categories of Ukrainian citizens whose work is related to Poland in one way or another:

§ people engaged in what is called “shuttle” business without permanent employment in Poland;

§ people engaged in “frontier” business, mostly in trade in such excisable goods as alcoholic beverages and cigarettes;

§ “short-term” migrant workers (performing seasonal work in agriculture, in particular harvesting crops, or on construction sites);

§ “long-term” migrant workers.

Those engaged in the “shuttle” business account for the overwhelming majority crossing the Ukrainian-Polish border. They buy clothes, footwear, fruits and vegetables and take them back home by car, bus or train. The goods are bought both for subsequent sale and personal use. Lately, the shuttle business has undergone changes, as small and middle-sized agencies appeared on the scene and pushed out the amateurish “shuttles”.

The “shuttle” business is frequently risky for the life and health of the people who in this way want to ensure their families a decent living. An example in point is the case of Varvara P. who in the summer of 2002 arrived in Warsaw to buy soft goods for their resale in Ukraine. In a local market she was groundlessly accused of settling accounts with forged dollars and detained by the Polish police. Upon detention no one took into consideration her health (she had undergone 26 operations, including an implant of a cardio stimulator). After several hours her condition got so bad that she was rushed to a hospital and placed in an intensive care ward. Since the charge was not proved, she was acquitted, but her personal effects and the US $207 that were taken away during the detention were not returned to her. Thus she found herself in a strange city, in a bad condition and without money. Only some days later did she manage to return to Ukraine with the assistance of casual acquaintances. The Commissioner took up her case and measures were taken to redress the wrong.

Criminal groups operating on the territory of Poland are an acute problem for the “shuttles” and other migrant workers as well. According to the information of the Embassy of the Republic of Poland in Ukraine, our citizens committed over 2,800 offenses in the Republic in 2002. The migrants are tracked down on buses and trains, at railroad stations, bus stations, markets as well as in crowded public places, forced to surrender their money and robbed by threats and violence with a frequently fatal outcome. Judging from unofficial data, Ukrainians are the second ethnic group after the Germans who are victimized by criminals.

Quite a few complaints concern the attitude of the Polish law enforcement bodies that more often than not ignore such cases and do not take effective measures to protect Ukrainian citizens against organized crime.

To do justice to the Polish police, they have lately stepped up their fight against criminal groups involved in robbery and extortion and there is hope that for Ukrainians the situation will change for the better.

“Frontier business” is a special form of migration for employment between Ukraine and Poland. Ukrainian citizens cross the Polish to sell alcoholic beverages and cigarette products throughout not more than one day.

Back in December 2000 the Commissioner, jointly with the Commissioner for Civil Rights Protection of the Republic of Poland, Andrjei Zoll, inspected compliance with human rights of persons crossing the Ukrainian-Polish border at the Shegyni-Medyka checkpoint and the Krakovets-Korczova checkpoint.

As the inspection proved, the Shegyni-Medyka checkpoint was built to handle 600 persons a day, while in actual fact there were from 3,000 to 6,000 – 90% of them Ukrainian citizens – crossing the border both ways. In the majority of cases their purpose was to sell excisable goods, specifically alcoholic beverages and cigarettes.

On February 5, 2001 the Commissioner for Human Rights addressed an appeal to the state customs and border services to draw their attention to the violations during crossings of the Ukrainian border and proposed definite measures to have the infringements curbed. In particular, it was proposed to: speed up the reconstruction of the pedestrian passageway at the Shegyni-Medyka checkpoint to prevent the violations and ensure the dignity of the persons crossing the border; study the possibility of drafting and putting into effect the Code of Honor of Ukrainian Border Guards and Customs Officers; and jointly with their Polish counterparts to identify the opportunities of simplifying the existing border crossing procedure in so far as it concerns stamping the foreign passports of Ukrainian citizens going abroad.

In April 2003 it is planned to jointly scrutinize how human rights are complied with at the border checkpoints of the two countries.

According to the information of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine, there are up to 300,000 undocumented Ukrainian migrant workers in Poland. The reason behind such a large number is the visa-free entry into the country under the Treaty between the Government of Ukraine and the Government of the Republic of the Republic of Poland of June 25, 1996. The citizens of both countries can stay on the territory of the other contracting state on a visa-free basis not more than 90 days. Besides, Ukraine and Poland singed a treaty on reciprocal employment of their citizens in effect since 1994.

The majority of Ukrainian migrant workers come to Poland from the western and central regions of Ukraine and many of them have a higher education. Although they see employment in Poland as something temporary, a certain part of them stays there for years. In most cases they are engaged in harvesting fruits and vegetables, working on construction sites, or else in the private sector. The wages they earn have not changed throughout the past few years: US $200-250 for the care of the elderly and 40-70 zlotys for occasional cleaning of homes and preparation of meals.

Since Poland has a high unemployment rate of 19%, Ukrainians take up any job that comes their way, performing menial work without a fixed working day. Polish employers stand a lot to gain from the work of our citizens, since the latter agree to get minimum pay.

The semi-legal status, lack of knowledge of Polish laws, language and the market situation pushes Ukrainian citizens to the lowest rungs of the social and professional ladder in the most unfavorable sectors of the Polish economy where they are discriminated against and victimized by criminals.

Visa regulations to be introduced in July 2003 are an important factor that will impact on the size and nature of migration to Poland. In consequence, there will be a substantial reduction in the migration flows between the two countries, the number of illegal migrants in Poland will go up, and the national labor market, especially in Ukraine’s western regions, will become tense. The dimension of the consequences will depend a lot on how liberal the new visa regulations will be. This, as the Commissioner for Human Rights believes, should be the priority objective of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine.

Another problem for Ukrainian migrants in Poland is the lack of medical insurance that, in turn, creates the problem of paying for medical services and, when necessary, transporting the sick back to Ukraine.

In July 1993 the Treaty on Cooperation in Health Care and Medical Sciences between the Ministry of Health of Ukraine and the Ministry of Health and Social Security of the Republic of Poland for 1993 was signed to govern some issues of medical aid to Ukrainian and Polish citizens during their stay on the territory of one of the contracting parties. The validity of the treaty terminated on December 31, 1996 and since then no bilateral instruments governing these issues were signed.

On August 7, 2002 the Commissioner for Human Rights forwarded an appeal to the Prime Minister of Ukraine, stating, in part that “the absence in Ukraine of a law on medical insurance governing the referred to issues on a bilateral level with the Republic of Poland will make it possible to provide medical aid to Ukrainian citizens temporarily staying on the territory of the Republic of Poland. During accidents and illness Ukrainian citizens are subjected to humiliation and discrimination, because most medical establishments of Poland refuse to provide medical services at no charge. There have been cases when our citizens died while waiting for emergency aid in vain, as it happened with a Ukrainian citizen in Szczecin who died in an ambulance after three hospitals refused to admit him.

“But at the same time, according to the information received by the Commissioner, medical establishments in Poland billed the Ukrainian Embassy US $360,000 for services provided to Ukrainian citizens in the first six months of 2002 alone.”

In this connection the Commissioner raised the question about the need to urgently settle this problem on a bilateral basis by concluding treaties between the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine and the Government of the Republic of Poland on medical insurance and treaties between the Ministry of Health of Ukraine and the Ministry of Health of Poland on health protection and medical sciences. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine informed that the Polish party reviewed the drafts of the treaties, but their conclusion was suspended because the Ukrainian party failed to take part in the consultations of experts.

In a letter of September 16, 2002, the Minister of Health informed the Commissioner that the Ministry forwarded a request to the Ukrainian Embassy in Poland to agree the possible time for the Ukrainian and Polish experts to hold consultations and settle the controversial issues of the draft government treaties on cooperation in medical insurance as well as the draft inter-ministerial treaty on medical care and medical sciences. The Commissioner expressed the hope that this problem would be resolved at last.

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