Poland temporarily exposes the right to asylum applications

The Polish President Andrzej Duda has put a law on restriction of asylum applications with his signature. “I signed because I think this is necessary to strengthen the security of our borders,” wrote Duda on the social network X.

He called on the government to quickly issue a regulation on the application of the law. Prime Minister Donald Tusk announced a corresponding decision in Warsaw for Wednesday evening. The law stipulates that in emergencies on the border for 60 days, only foreigners may apply for asylum that have been legally entered to Poland.

The EU member sees such an emergency, especially on his eastern border to Belarus. From there, thousands of refugees with hardly covert support from the Belarusian authorities try to cross the heavily fortified border. Poland accuses Belarus and Russia of specifically destabilizing the EU with migrants.

President Duda from the national conservative party PIS also asked Tusk in a letter which measures he took to protect the western border. This is against the German plans of permanent border controls with the rejection of migrants without valid papers.

In December, the EU Commission declared that the Member States bordering Russia and Belarus may restrict asylum law if Moscow and Minsk use migrants as a “weapon”. Poland in particular had called for handling from Brussels for significantly increased migration figures.

However, the Warsaw project met with outrage among human rights organizations. Last month, Human Rights Watch asked the Polish Parliament to reject the bill because it rejects the international and EU obligations of Poland. Amnesty International described the plans to suspend the right to asylum as “illegal”.