The announcement came as a bombshell. At the convention of his Civic Platform party, Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk announced his intention on October 12 to temporarily suspend the right to asylum in his country. “The right to asylum is being instrumentalized against its very principle,” said the head of government, referring to the new migration routes being put in place by the Russian and Belarusian regimes. “We will not implement any European idea if we are certain that it harms our interests. I’m talking about the Pact on Migration and Asylum,” adopted by the 27 member states in May, after five years of negotiations.
The release caused astonishment on both sides of the political spectrum. It completely overshadowed the convention of the nationalist Law and Justice party (PiS), held on the same day, while Tusk’s coalition partners, from the Left alliance to the conservatives of Third Way, claimed they had not been consulted. It was also a shock for the left-wing fringe of the electorate, just days before the first anniversary of the victorious parliamentary elections of October 15, 2023, which ended eight years of populist rule.
It was precisely on October 15, the eve of a European summit devoted to the migration issue, that the government chose to present its new strategy on the matter. Entitled “Regain Control, Ensure Security,” the 35-page document makes security – both internal and economic – the “main priority,” and states that it wants to “avoid reproducing the mistakes made by Western European countries.”
The need for ‘urgent changes’
These include: “specific regulation” of migratory flows; a “selective approach” based on the needs of the labor market; criticism of European migration policy and international conventions, accused of “not being suitable for current realities” and requiring “urgent changes”; restrictions on the distribution of student visas and on access to nationality; and a determination to implement a policy of integration and “special protection for vulnerable populations.”
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The four left-wing ministers in Tusk’s coalition voted against adoption of the document. The bill also triggered the wrath of human rights and migrant protection organizations. Some 40 of them, including Amnesty International, sent a lengthy missive to the government, in which they denounced a “fear-based approach,” “not in line with international standards” and the Polish constitution, and warned against the introduction of “discriminatory, even racist procedures.”
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Publish date : 2024-11-03 15:09:00
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