Poland to adopt decree suspending right to seek asylum

WARSAW (AFP): Poland’s government will on Wednesday suspend the right to seek asylum, the prime minister said, as the European Union member faces irregular migrant arrivals from neighboring Belarus.

Poland and other EU states along the bloc’s eastern edge have accused Russia and its ally Belarus of orchestrating a campaign of pushing thousands of migrants over their borders in recent years.

“This evening the government will adopt a decree suspending the right to apply for asylum. Just as I announced — without delay,” Prime Minister Donald Tusk said on social media platform X.

The announcement came after Poland’s President Andrzej Duda — allied with the right-wing opposition — announced he signed into law a bill allowing the government to temporarily limit asylum rights.

The Polish senate voted through the bill earlier this month.

The legislation also provided for the possibility of extending the restriction with parliament’s approval.

The European Union last year said member states bordering Russia and Belarus were allowed to limit the right of asylum for migrants in the event of their “weaponization” by Moscow and Minsk.

In December, Tusk called the bill a move to take back “control of Poland’s borders.”

But the measures were met with outrage from human rights groups.

Last month, Human Rights Watch urged the Polish parliament to reject the bill that it said “flies in the face of Poland’s international and EU obligations.”