Poland to temporarily suspend asylum rights amid Belarus border tensions

The determination aims to curb a borderline situation that Warsaw says has been orchestrated by Minsk and its state Russia.

Poland is acceptable to temporarily suspend the close to asylum arsenic portion of a broader strategy aimed astatine reducing irregular migration, driven by escalating tensions with Belarus.

The Polish authorities accuses Belarus of facilitating the question of migrants crossed their shared border.

“One of the elements of the migration strategy volition beryllium the impermanent territorial suspension of the close to asylum,” Prime Minister Donald Tusk said connected Saturday.

“I volition request this, I volition request designation successful Europe for this decision,” helium told a legislature held by his wide Civic Coalition (KO) grouping, the largest subordinate of Poland’s conjugation government.

Tusk said the close to asylum was being utilized by Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko, Russian President Vladimir Putin and by radical smugglers successful a mode that goes against the essence of the close to asylum.

Migration has been precocious connected the agenda successful Poland since 2021, erstwhile a border crisis resulted successful thousands of asylum seekers, chiefly from Afghanistan, Syria, and the Kurdish portion of Iraq, attempting to participate Poland via Belarus.

Warsaw and the European Union said it was a situation orchestrated by Minsk and its state Russia.

Belarusian authorities, chiefly via tourer agencies successful the Middle East, promoted question to Belarus portion radical smugglers led refugees and migrants to judge they could easy participate the European Union.

Thousands of radical were issued tourer visas to alert to Minsk and past headed to the borderline with Poland.

Russia and Belarus person denied responsibility.

Tusk said helium would contiguous the migration strategy astatine a authorities gathering connected October 15, the archetypal day of the predetermination that brought the conjugation helium leads to power.

Donald Tusk successful Lodz, Poland [File: Kacper Pempel/Reuters]

Anti-migrant rhetoric

Since taking bureau successful December 2023, Tusk has pursued pugnacious policies connected migration.

This strategy has won wide nationalist support, but has dismayed activists who had hoped helium would wantonness the previous, nationalist administration’s approach.

Marysia Zlonkiewicz from Grupa Granica, an NGO that helps migrants astatine the border, said suspending the close to asylum was against the constitution and would propulsion migrants into the hands of radical smugglers.

“Prime Minister Tusk is violating the constitution that helium promised to support … You cannot selectively exclude oregon deprive radical of law rights,” she told the Reuters quality agency.

Polish borderline guards, November 2021 [Morten Risberg/Al Jazeera]

Poland has antecedently been accused of “pushbacks” of non-European refugees and migrants entering their country via the “red zone” – a 3km-wide (two-mile) portion moving on the astir 400km (249-mile) borderline with Belarus.

Al Jazeera spoke to migrants and refugees connected the borderline successful 2021 and 2022 who said they had been routinely pushed backmost towards the borderline with Belarus by Polish borderline guards.

The reddish portion was archetypal introduced successful 2021 but closed successful 2022 aft Poland began gathering a alloy partition connected the border.

It was reopened successful 2024 aft a Polish worker was killed connected the border.

Source

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Al Jazeera and quality agencies