October 15, Pozirk. The idea to suspend the right to asylum arose a few weeks ago during a long conversation involving officials as a reaction to the migration crisis at the Polish-Belarusian border, Deputy Interior Minister Maciej Duszczyk has told TVN 24.
He pointed out that currently, even migrants who attack Polish border guards have the right to request asylum. The state is helpless because the Geneva Convention does not specify any responses to such incidents, he said.
If Warsaw receives information that Belarusians, for example, are bringing people who have been released from Syrian prisons and massing them at the Polish border, it should be able to suspend the right to asylum temporarily and territorially, he contended. Otherwise, asylum procedures can be used to amplify the effect that Alaksandar Łukašenka seeks to achieve, he added.
At last week’s congress of the ruling Civic Coalition, its leader, Prime Minister Donald Tusk, announced that he would present a new migration strategy at a government meeting on October 15. It proposes a temporary, local suspension of the right to asylum.
Tusk pledged that the government will reduce illegal immigration to a minimum.
However, the state should promote the influx of people who really want to honestly work in Poland, pay their taxes there and integrate into Polish society, he said.
After the 2020 unrest in Belarus, Poland has become a key country for Belarusians fleeing political persecution.
