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Poland shapes its migration policy based on national and EU security interests and needs, the Polish Interior Ministry told Euractiv Poland, responding to NGO criticisms.
On Wednesday, the Polish government adopted a package of laws introducing changes to the country’s asylum policy, including the possibility of temporarily suspending asylum rights, which had previously sparked criticism in Poland and abroad.
“Poland adopts measures deemed necessary to ensure the security of the state border, which also doubles as the external border of the European Union,” the Interior Ministry told Euractiv.
In its explanation, the ministry said it was prioritising national (and EU) security, particularly against Russia and Belarus, whom the government says engage in so-called ‘hybrid warfare’ by sending migrants over the border to destabilise countries at their border and the EU as a whole.
Tusk’s plans to temporarily suspend asylum rights for anyone crossing the border has raised eyebrows in some EU capitals and even within his own ruling coalition, but European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said that such measures, if temporary and proportionate, were in line with EU law.
Moreover, at the European Council summit in October, leaders expressed support for countries facing “the instrumental use of migrants for political purposes” and pledged to combat it.
HRW condemned the treatment of asylum-seekers
NGOs, however, remain unconvinced.
Human Rights Watch even urged the Commission to take immediate action against Poland for forcing asylum seekers back to Belarus. In a statement published last week, they also said Poland’s response to migration challenges should have the protection of human beings and their rights at its heart.
For HRW, Tusk’s announcement of a “temporary suspension of the right to asylum” on the grounds of national security violates EU law, including the EU’s Fundamental Rights Charter and the EU’s new migration and asylum pact, which it said reaffirms the fundamental right to seek asylum.
HRW also said it had interviewed numerous people who had sought asylum at the Polish-Belarusian border and had been turned back. Their reports revealed disturbing patterns of treatment of asylum seekers by Polish border guards, including forcing them to sign documents renouncing their right to asylum.
Contacted by Euractiv Poland, the Interior Ministry responded to the HRW report, stressing that the migration pressure on the Belarusian section of the Polish state border was artificially created, in part due to Belarus’ tourist visa facilitation scheme for citizens of countries with the highest migration risk, in particular from the Middle East and Africa, and its support for the active recruitment of migrants from these countries through various entities.
“As a result, Belarusian visas are issued to people who have decided to pay for being trafficked to a European country of their choice, which is facilitated by criminal groups,” the ministry said.
Despite the fact that foreign nationals arrive in Belarus with valid visas and identity documents, when they try to cross the EU’s external border, they usually do not have any documents with them. This complicates the process of granting them international protection and makes it virtually impossible to enforce their return to their country of origin, it said in a lengthy statement.
Measures used are ‘adequate and proportional’
The ministry also said that Belarus’ smuggling of migrants is aimed at destabilising the internal situation within the EU.
“Given these circumstances, the Border Guard officers serving at the Belarusian border use adequate and proportional measures to effectively prevent irregular border crossing attempts and to protect their own security in threatening situations.”
The ministry also responded to criticism of the government’s asylum policy. According to the draft law, restrictions on the right to apply for international protection will be introduced if all the circumstances listed in the law co-occur.
The conditions include the instrumentalisation of migration that poses a serious threat to the national security of the state or society, the need to introduce a temporary restriction of the right to asylum, and the lack of other means to prevent the hybrid threats, the ministry added.
(Aleksandra Krzysztoszek | Euractiv.pl)
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