Polish government's decision to suspend asylum law triggers concerns from civil society

WARSAW, Poland (AP) — Human rights and civil society groups voiced concerns Monday after Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk announced a plan to temporarily suspend the right to asylum because of its alleged abuse by eastern neighbors Belarus and Russia.

Poland has struggled since 2021 with migration pressures on its border with Belarus — which is also part of the European Union’s external border.

Successive Polish governments have accused Belarus and Russia of organizing the mass transfer of migrants from the Middle East and Africa to the border to destabilize the West. They view it as part of a hybrid war that they accuse Moscow of waging against the West as it continues its nearly three-year full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

Some migrants have applied for asylum in Poland, but before the requests are processed, they travel across the EU’s border-free travel zone to reach Germany or other countries in Western Europe. Germany, where security fears are rising after a spate of extremist attacks, has recently responded by expanding border controls at all of its borders to fight irregular migration. Tusk called Germany’s move “unacceptable.”

Tusk announced his plan to temporarily suspend the right for migrants to seek asylum at a convention of his Civic Coalition on Saturday. It will be part of a strategy that will be presented to a Cabinet meeting on Tuesday.

In an an open letter to Tusk published on Monday, dozens of nongovernmental organizations urged him to respect the right to asylum guaranteed by international conventions which Poland signed, including the Geneva Convention on the Status of Refugees and the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union, and Poland’s own constitution.

The groups said that fundamental rights and freedoms must be respected.

“It is thanks to them that thousands of Polish women and men found shelter abroad in the difficult times of communist totalitarianism, and we have become one of the greatest beneficiaries of these rights,” the letter said. “We live in difficult and uncertain times of war conflicts breaking out all over the world, and we ourselves exist on the outskirts of war, but this doesn’t exempt us from humanity and from observing the law.”

It was signed by Amnesty International and 45 other organizations that represent a range of humanitarian, legal and civic causes.

Tusk defended his decision to temporarily suspend asylum rights. He argued that Finland also suspended accepting asylum applications after facing migration pressure on its border with Russia.

“The right to asylum is used instrumentally in this war and has nothing to do with human rights. Border control and the territorial security of Poland is and will be our priority. Our decisions and actions will be absolutely subordinate to this,” Tusk said on X on Sunday.

A spokesperson for the European Commission, the EU’s executive branch, acknowledged the challenge posed by Belarus, but also Russia, and didn’t explicitly criticize Tusk’s approach.

“It is important and imperative that the union is protecting the external borders, and in particular from Russia and Belarus, both countries that have put in the past three years, a lot of pressure on the external borders,” European Commission spokesperson Anitta Hipper said during a briefing Monday. “This is something that is undermining the security of the EU member states and of the union as a whole.”

But she also underlined that EU member countries are legally obliged to allow people to apply for international protection.

Hipper noted that the European Commission intends to “work on ensuring that the member states have the necessary tools to respond to these types of hybrid attacks.”