Poland’s Prime Minister Donald Tusk on March 28, 2024 in Warsaw, Poland. (Photo by Omar … [+] Marques/Getty Images)
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The Prime Minister of Poland Donald Tusk is to present plans to suspend the right to asylum within Poland’s territory. It comes as an increasing number of European Union members tighten or close their borders to asylum seekers, contrary to their international and EU obligations.
“Our right and our duty is to protect the Polish and European border,” wrote Tusk on Twitter, “(our) security will not be subject to negotiation.”
Poland has for several years seen an increase in irregular migration across its border with non-EU state Belarus. While campaigning for 2023’s parliamentary elections, the liberal centrist Tusk was critical of the previous right-wing Law and Justice (PiS) government for presiding over this increase, while moderating his rhetoric on the matter.
In the run-up to those elections, PiS had tried to make migration a central issue, taking aim in particular at the European Union’s plans to make countries like Poland, which receives relatively few refugees from Muslim countries compared to other member states like Italy and Greece, resettle a proportionate amount of people.
Since taking office in October 2023, Tusk has taken a tough approach to migration, in keeping with opinion polls showing Poles are broadly against taking further refugees from around Europe. Now, in light of continued crossings over the border with Belarus, he appears ready to seal off the border, at least temporarily.
In doing so, Tusk joins a growing number of European Member states who have tightened or closed their borders to asylum seekers. This is a strategy pursued by Hungary for many years, and Prime Minister Viktor Orban has long been at odds with Brussels over cooperation on migration. The two are still locked in a bitter dispute, with the EU imposing steep fines on Hungary for refusing to comply with orders to open up its borders and Orban threatening to ‘bus’ asylum seekers directly to Brussels (apparently inspired by allies in the U.S. who have done similar).
At the same time Germany announced in September 2024 that they would more tightly control their own land borders and not allow asylum seekers in. This threatens the operation of the EU’s Schengen zone of free movement, one of the bloc’s central pillars. At the time of its announcement, Polish PM Tusk himself was highly critical of Germany, suggesting that by closing off its borders to asylum seekers it was neglecting its duties to neighboring member states.
In Poland’s case this latter point is not an issue, as Belarus is not an EU member state. The plan to suspend the right to asylum has nonetheless set alarm bells off with rights advocates, as it goes against Poland’s obligations under international and EU asylum law.
“Ignoring the rule of law at (its) own borders does not depend on who is power in Poland,” commented Dimitry Kochenov of Central European University, “but even (former conservative Prime Minister Jarosław) Kaczyński has not mounted such a frontal assault against EU values in this area as Tusk has now done.”
Tusk argues that the unique nature of the irregular migration over the Poland-Belarus border is enough to justify the suspension. For years, Poland and other member states have accused Belarus and allied Russia, with some evidence, of weaponizing refugees by sending them across the border into EU territory.
“We know very well how (the right to asylum) used by Lukashenko, Putin, (…) exactly against the essence of the right to asylum,” he is reported to have said when announcing his plans.
In a statement on Monday, a European Commission spokesperson admonished Tusk for his plan, saying “member states have international and EU obligations, including the obligation to provide access to the asylum procedure.”
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Publish date : 2024-10-15 01:32:00
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