2024-10-12 14:20 update: 2024-10-14, 15:11
Donald Tusk. Photo PAP/Paweł Supernak
Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk has said that temporary suspension of granting asylum will be part of Poland’s migration policy, which will be announced on Tuesday during the meeting of his cabinet.
Tusk addressed Poland’s growing issue of illegal migration and the crisis continuing on Poland’s border with Belarus at the convention of his party, the Civic Coalition (KO), the main grouping in the Polish government, held in Warsaw on Saturday.
"The state must regain 100 percent of the control over who enters and leaves Poland," he said.
According to him, the migration policy has already been prepared.
"I will present this government strategy... on the 15th (of October - PAP) at the government meeting," he announced, adding that one element of the migration strategy will be the temporary territorial suspension of the right to asylum.
He said that the decision would be motivated by the knowledge of "how it is used by (Belarusian President Alexander - PAP) Lukashenko, by (Russian President Vladimir-PAP) Putin, by smugglers, human smugglers, human traffickers. How this right to asylum is used is in exact contradiction to the idea of the right to asylum."
Referring to the EU’s migration pact, he said that even if he "takes a beating," for it he intends to remain absolutely firm and uncompromising in implementing this migration policy and demand recognition from the EU.
"We will not respect or implement any European or EU proposals if we are certain that they threaten our security," he said.
"The state is responsible for ensuring that people who come to Poland are those who want to work honestly, pay taxes, integrate into Polish society, and study at a legitimate university. And these are the people who deserve respect and recognition."
He added that the result of the previous Law and Justice (PiS) government’s policy was that "in effect, a wave of illegal migration flooded Poland."
"We will reduce illegal migration in Poland to a minimum," he said. "We will eradicate those practices that effectively bypassed Polish interests and compromised the security of Polish citizens and the Polish state. And we will eliminate these practices entirely."
He also said that the implementation of a good migration policy "is absolutely the most important matter today in Poland, Europe, and the world."
Tusk added that the government is not backing out from any commitment it has made to its voters. "If we have to back out, we will explain to everyone without exception exactly what is preventing this and why it is impossible. However, we are not withdrawing from these fundamental commitments, even though not everything has been possible for various reasons in the first 100 days (of office - PAP)."
The KO members spoke to the press about the measure following Tusk's address.
Minister for European Affairs Adam Szlapka argued that international law allows for suspending certain rights in situations of grave danger to a state. "Our security is under pressure. We have to look for special measures," he said.
Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski said that the suspension of the EU right to asylum is a sovereign decision of the state and that Polish migration policy will be a "blessing for the entire European Union" as Poland guards its external borders.
Head of the Prime Minister's Office Jan Grabiec criticised the EU's migration pact, arguing that it doesn't solve the migration crisis but merely shifts the burden of migrants between member states. While acknowledging that suspending asylum rights would be controversial, he justified the move by claiming that asylum has become a tool in hybrid warfare, exploited by Russia and Belarus.
The decision prompted an outcry from human rights organisations, which deemed it "unacceptable". Amnesty International Poland wrote on the X platform that the right to asylum is guaranteed by the Polish constitution and the Geneva Convention. Maria Poszytek, a lawyer at the Helsinki Foundation for Human Rights, told PAP that the idea is short-sighted and inhumane.
Poland has seen increasing illegal migration attempts at its border with Belarus since 2021, when Lukashenko, decided to retaliate for EU sanctions on Minsk by mounting migration pressure on the EU. To this end, Belarus invited thousands of migrants to the country under a false promise of easy access to the EU across the Polish and Lithuanian borders. (PAP)
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