Polish government approves tough new migration strategy, including possibility to suspend asylum claims

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Notes from Poland is run by a small editorial team and is published by an independent, non-profit foundation that is funded through donations from our readers. We cannot do what we do without your support.

Poland’s government has approved plans for a tough new migration strategy that will include the possibility to temporarily suspend the acceptance of asylum claims if “immigrants threaten to destabilise the state”.

That latter idea has aroused controversy since being announced by Prime Minister Donald Tusk on Saturday. Many experts have warned that denying the possibility of asylum would violate both international law and Poland’s own constitution. Today four left-wing government ministers voiced opposition to the plans.

On Tuesday evening, Tusk announced that his cabinet had approved the strategy, which is titled: “Regaining control. Ensuring security. A comprehensive and responsible migration strategy for Poland for the years 2025-2030”.

The document itself – which is reportedly over 30 pages long – has not yet been published, but a summary was today posted on the government website.

The same website notes that the strategy was adopted with dissenting opinions from the four government ministers who come from The Left (Lewica), which is a junior partner in the ruling coalition alongside Tusk’s centrist Civic Platform and the centre-right Third Way (Trzecia Droga).

The government’s announcement notes that in recent years Poland has “changed status from a country of emigration to a country of immigration”, with “around 2.5 million foreigners currently in Poland with the intention of staying long-term”.

Under the rule of the former Law and Justice (PiS) government from 2015 to 2023, Poland issued more first residence permits to immigrants from outside the EU than any other member state for seven years running.

But in its announcement today, the current government says that this unprecedented level of immigration happened without any comprehensive strategy in place. It wants to address this with a policy that makes “state security the priority when it comes to the issue of migration”.

The outline then mentions seven planned “areas of state intervention”: access to territory, access to national and international protection, conditions of access to the labour market, educational migration, integration, citizenship and repatriation, and the Polish diaspora.

Most controversially, it will seek to “change [asylum] procedures so that they cannot be used in hybrid activities, while at the same time taking into account the humanitarian dimension of the situation on the Polish borders”.

That is a reference to the crisis on the border with Belarus, where, since 2021, tens of thousands of migrants and refugees – mainly from Africa, Asia and the Middle East – have tried to cross with the encouragement and assistance of the Belarusian authorities.

Both Poland and its EU partners have described that crisis as part of a “hybrid war” being waged against the West by Belarus and its ally Russia.

The Polish government’s new strategy will make it “possible, in the event of the threat of destabilisation of the state by an influx of immigrants, to temporarily and territorially suspend the right to receive asylum applications”.

The summary does not explain what is meant by “territorially”, though it is likely to refer to the suspension of such rights in a specific area, such as along the border with Belarus and/or the border with the Russian exclave of Kaliningrad. Finland earlier this year introduced a similar measure on its border with Russia.

“Poland cannot allow groups of illegal immigrants, organised and controlled by Russia and Belarus, to cross our eastern border under the pretext of submitting asylum applications,” says the government.

But it adds that “the relevant laws [on suspending asylum rights] should take into account a mechanism of parliamentary oversight, vulnerable groups and the experiences of other countries”.

Elsewhere in its summary of the new strategy, the government says that it will introduce a “transparent visa policy…based on a selective approach to migration”, including “detailed rules for the entry and stay of foreigners”.

That is a response to the emergence last year of a scandal in which it is alleged that failings and corruption in the visa system under the PiS government allowed potential migrants to pay for expedited procedures and in some cases resulted in them not being properly vetted by the Polish authorities.

The newly announced policy will seek to ensure that economic migrants will “fill gaps” in the labour market and “do not create potential new challenges for a stable employment system in Poland”, says the government.

It will also seek to try to prevent migrants from obtaining work or student visas simply as a means of getting access to the European Schengen area without the genuine intention to work or study.

The document sets out plans for the “inclusion and integration of immigrants” that will ensure they will “not have a negative impact on social cohesion in Poland” but that also “allows their full potential to be used”.

“The key to this issue is the acceptance by foreigners of the norms and principles in force in Polish society,” writes the government. Last week, it was announced that Poland will set up dozens of EU-funded “foreigner integration centres” to provide services to immigrants and help them adapt.

Finally, the government says that it will “support the return of Polish emigrants to the country”, something that was also encouraged by the former PiS administration.

Although the document has been approved by the majority of the cabinet, it will still require various acts of legislation to be passed by parliament and signed into law by the president.

Here Tusk may face opposition from The Left, without whom his coalition does not have a parliamentary majority. The head of The Left’s parliamentary caucus, Anna Maria Żukowska, said this evening that her group is opposed to suspending asylum rights and would not support any legislation to that effect.

However, it is possible that parts of the opposition – made up of the national-conservative PiS and the far-right Confederation (Konfederacja) – would back such a measure, helping it to pass. President Andrzej Duda, a PiS ally, may also be willing to sign such a bill into law.

Any move to suspend asylum rights would also be likely to face pushback from the European Commission – which this week reminded Poland of its obligation under international and EU law to allow people to apply for international protection – and legal challenges in European courts.

Notes from Poland is run by a small editorial team and published by an independent, non-profit foundation that is funded through donations from our readers. We cannot do what we do without your support.

Main image credit: Krystian Maj/KPRM (under CC BY-NC-ND 2.0)