Important Precedent: Ex-political Prisoner Wins Trial In Poland Under The Dublin Regulation

Thanks to the help of human rights activists and MEP Małgorzata Gosiewska, he will remain in the country.

Former political prisoner Ales Papkowicz was going to be sent from Poland to Lithuania under the Dublin Regulation. Today, January 29, the Polish court made a decision that allows Ales to stay in Poland, reports the human rights initiative Partyzanka.

The information of human rights activists, Ales Papkovich was detained in Belarus together with his brother on September 2, 2022 for participation in a protest march. During the detention, he was beaten. In December of the same year, he was sentenced to two years in prison. The man was released on June 10, 2024 and on the same day was evacuated from Belarus due to persecution. At that time, it was possible to issue only a short-term Lithuanian visa, by which he was taken directly to Poland, where he was reunited with his family and applied for international protection. Nevertheless, the Aliens Office decided to refer the case to Lithuania, applying the Dublin Regulation.

The Dublin Regulation is an agreement that determines which EU country should process an application for international protection. In general, this is the country that issued the foreigner with the EU entry document or residence permit. And if there was no such document - the country of first entry to the EU.

But the regulation allows for exceptions: to take into account humanitarian circumstances or family ties. Then the case is sent to the state with which the applicant is closely connected or where his spouse, minor children or parents of minors live.

On December 13, 2025, as part of a group of 123 political prisoners, Ales' brother Ales Jan Papkovich was released and deported from Belarus, who also now lives in Poland.

According to the Partyzanka initiative, whose lawyer Anna Matievskaya prepared the appeal against the decision of the Office for Foreigners, the court agreed with serious procedural violations in the case and the reasoning of Ales' individual situation.

The meeting was attended by the head of the European Parliament delegation for relations with Belarus, MEP from the Law and Justice party Malgorzata Gosevska, who actively defends Belarusians who find themselves in a difficult situation.

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