Poland will temporarily ban refugees from seeking asylum in the country, Prime Minister Donald Tusk has announced. Tusk accused Russia and Belarus of deliberately channeling tens of thousands of migrants across Poland’s borders and into the EU.
In a speech in Warsaw on Saturday, Tusk said that he would present his new migration policy – which includes “the temporary territorial suspension of the right to asylum” – to the EU after unveiling it at a government meeting on Tuesday.
“I will demand this,” he said. “I will demand recognition in Europe for this decision.”
It is unclear how Tusk’s proposal will be received in Brussels. The EU’s Charter of Fundamental Rights guarantees the right to asylum across the 27-nation bloc, while the Common European Asylum System aims to ensure that migrants are treated similarly no matter which EU country they first arrive in.
The right to asylum, however, is being abused by “[Belarusian President Alexander] Lukashenko, [Russian President Vladimir] Putin, [and] by people smugglers [and] people traffickers,” Tusk claimed.
The flow of migrants across the Belarus-Poland border has increased dramatically since 2021, with around 2,500 crossing over every month this year, despite the Polish authorities constructing a border fence and pushing back large groups of people. The Polish Foreign Ministry has claimed that Belarus is inviting asylum seekers in and instructing them to enter Poland, at the behest of the Russian security services.
Moscow and Minsk have both denied any role in the migrant influx.
Most of the people entering Poland travel on to western Europe, where benefits for asylum seekers are more generous. Last month, Germany reintroduced border checks at all land crossings to stem the flow, and earlier this year, German police were accused of “dumping” thousands of migrants back across the Polish border.
A year earlier, Polish media reported that the country’s Foreign Ministry and consulates were engaged in the same scheme that they are now accusing Belarus and Russia of orchestrating. According to multiple reports, ministry employees sold up to 350,000 visas to migrants from Asia and Africa since 2021, knowing that most would travel on to Germany after entering the country.
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