Poland’s Prime Minister Proposes Temporary Suspension of Asylum Rights

Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk has announced plans to temporarily suspend the right to asylum as part of a new migration strategy aimed at addressing irregular migration. During a speech at a meeting of his center-right Civic Coalition party in Warsaw, Tusk asserted that people smugglers, with the backing of Belarus and Russia, are exploiting the right to asylum for their own ends.

Since 2021, Poland has witnessed a significant increase in illegal crossings, primarily from individuals hailing from the Middle East, Africa, and Asia via Belarus. The Polish government has accused Belarus and Russia of engaging in “hybrid warfare” by orchestrating the flow of migrants into the European Union to destabilize the region. Both countries, however, have denied these allegations. In August 2021, the onset of the migration crisis was marked by a dramatic spike: in that month alone, eight times as many individuals attempted to cross into Poland illegally compared to the entire year of 2020. The trend has persisted, with dozens of individuals attempting to cross the border daily.

Tusk indicated that he would formally present the new migration policy at a government meeting scheduled for October 15. “One of the elements of the migration strategy will be the temporary territorial suspension of the right to asylum,” he stated, emphasizing his intention to seek recognition for this measure from his European counterparts.

Under international law, nations are obligated to offer the right to claim asylum, and Tusk did not clarify how he plans to justify this temporary suspension to other EU nations. He expressed concerns about how the asylum system is being manipulated, stating, “We know very well how it is used by Lukashenko, Putin… by people smugglers, people traffickers.” He reiterated Poland’s need to regain complete control over its borders, asserting, “Poland must take back 100% control over who comes to Poland.”

Many migrants crossing into Poland from Belarus do not intend to remain in the country but instead seek to enter Germany. This trend has prompted German authorities to implement additional checks at their border with Poland.

Tusk’s pro-EU coalition government has surprised observers by continuing the stringent migration policies initiated by the previous right-wing Law and Justice (PiS) government, which authorized pushbacks and constructed a 5.5-meter-high steel fence along 186 kilometers (115 miles) of its border with Belarus. While the former government took a tough stance against migrants from the Middle East and Asia, it paradoxically issued the highest number of annual residence and work permits in the EU during much of its tenure.

The current coalition has also maintained the practice of pushbacks and reinstated an exclusion zone along parts of the border. In July, following the fatal stabbing of a 21-year-old soldier by migrants, the government expedited legislation to decriminalize the use of firearms by security forces in self-defense under certain circumstances.

Public opinion polls suggest substantial support for the hardline policies, with 86% of respondents favoring the use of weapons in self-defense by security personnel. Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski emphasized that a strict migration policy was instrumental in the Civic Coalition’s electoral success in October 2022. “I don’t think we would have won if we hadn’t outflanked the then-ruling party on the right on migration,” he remarked during a recent talk at the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies in Washington.

However, human rights organizations have raised alarms about the new government’s migration policies. NGOs estimate that over 130 migrants have died on both sides of the borders with Belarus, Poland, Lithuania, and Latvia since the crisis began. Malgorzata Szuleka, a board member of the Helsinki Foundation for Human Rights in Warsaw, commented on the situation, stating, “I never saw Donald Tusk as a human rights champion, but this is a new low.”

Szuleka highlighted the humanitarian crisis unfolding at the border and emphasized the need for rational dialogue about migration, rather than policies driven by populist sentiments. As Tusk prepares to move forward with his proposed suspension of asylum rights, the ramifications for both migrants and Poland’s international relations remain to be seen.