WARSAW, Poland (AP) — Human rights and civil society groups raised concerns Monday after Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk announced a plan to temporarily suspend the right to asylum over its alleged abuse by eastern neighbors Belarus and Russia.
Since 2021, Poland has been facing migratory pressure at its border with Belarus – which is also part of the European Union’s external border.
Successive Polish governments have accused Belarus and Russia of organizing the mass transfer of migrants from the Middle East and Africa to the border to destabilize the West. They see it as part of a hybrid war they accuse Moscow of waging against the West as it continues its nearly three-year full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
Some migrants have applied for asylum in Poland, but before the requests are processed they travel through the EU’s border-free travel zone to reach Germany or other countries in Western Europe. Germany, where security fears are rising after a wave of extremist attacks, recently responded by expanding border controls at all borders to combat irregular migration. Tusk called Germany’s move “unacceptable.”
Tusk announced on Saturday at a conference of his Civic Coalition his plan to temporarily suspend the right of migrants to apply for asylum. It will be part of a strategy to be presented at a cabinet meeting on Tuesday.
In an open letter to Tusk published on Monday, dozens of non-governmental organizations urged him to respect the right to asylum guaranteed by international treaties to which Poland is a signatory, including the Geneva Convention on the Status of Refugees and the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union. and Poland’s own constitution.
The groups said fundamental rights and freedoms must be respected.
“It is thanks to them that thousands of Polish women and men have found shelter abroad in the difficult times of communist totalitarianism, and we have become one of the biggest beneficiaries of these rights,” the letter said. “We live in difficult and uncertain times with war conflicts breaking out all over the world, and we ourselves find ourselves on the brink of war, but this does not absolve us from humanity and from adhering to the law.”
It was signed by Amnesty International and 45 other organizations representing a range of humanitarian, legal and social causes.
Tusk defended his decision to temporarily suspend asylum rights. He argued that Finland has also suspended accepting asylum applications after facing migratory pressure at its border with Russia.
“The right to asylum is being used instrumentally in this war and has nothing to do with human rights. Border control and Poland’s territorial security are and will remain our priority. Our decisions and actions will be absolutely subordinate to this,” Tusk said on X on Sunday.
A spokesperson for the European Commission, the EU’s executive arm, acknowledged the challenge from Belarus, but also from Russia, and did not explicitly criticize Tusk’s approach.
“It is important and absolutely necessary that the union protects its external borders, and in particular against Russia and Belarus, both countries that have exerted a lot of pressure on the external borders over the past three years,” European Commission spokesperson Anitta Hipper said. during a briefing Monday. “This is something that undermines the security of EU member states and the union as a whole.”
But she also underlined that EU member states are legally obliged to allow people to apply for international protection.
Hipper noted that the European Commission plans to “ensure that Member States have the necessary tools to respond to these types of hybrid attacks.”
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Lorne Cook contributed to this report from Brussels.
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Follow AP’s coverage of migration issues at https://apnews.com/hub/migration
