Authorities deny opposition claims of threatening behaviour by asylum seekers housed in Polish village

Apr 3, 2025 | Politics, Society

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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.

The Polish state body responsible for housing asylum seekers has denied claims by politicians from the right-wing opposition that foreigners at a migration centre in a small village have been acting threateningly.

It says that police have received no reports of any incidents involving the migrants, “who do not pose a threat to state security or public order”.

An MP from Poland’s main ruling party has accused the opposition of “spreading disinformation” in order to stir up unrest and exploit it for political gain.

Last week, a local councillor from the national-conservative Law and Justice (PiS), Poland’s main opposition party at the national level, raised concern about the asylum seekers – believed to be from Africa and Asia – being housed at a centre in Czerwony Bór, a village of around 180 people in northeastern Poland.

“Recently, we have been able to see groups of migrants walking around the surrounding villages, which is causing concern among the residents,” wrote Sebastian Mrówka, who also shared a photograph of one such group.

“According to unofficial information, about 70 migrants were brought to Czerwony Bór,” added Mrówka, who announced that he had sent an official request for information from the provincial governor, a government appointee, about who the migrants are and how they ended up in the village.

 

In a subsequent interview with news website Wirtualna Polska, Mrówka said that he had received reports from local residents that the migrants were “grabbing the door handles of cars, looking around yards and even entering them”. He claimed that “women are afraid of encounters” with the groups.

The councillor confirmed that the centre for housing foreigners had been located in the village for 20 years. But he said that previously, when refugees from Chechnya were living there, they did not cause any problems and even had good relations with locals.

Mrówka added that the lack of information from the authorities about who the recent arrivals are is causing particular concern, hence the questions he had addressed to the provincial governor.

Meanwhile, PiS politicians at the national level became interested in the case. The party has recently been criticising the government for allowing Germany to send back asylum seekers who have moved there from Poland (despite the practice being a standard procedure that also happened when PiS was in power).

Janusz Kowalski, a PiS MP, visited Czerwony Bór and tried to gain access to the facility but was refused entry by a security guard. Kowalski claimed that he had, however, spoken to a Yemeni man staying at the centre who said he had been sent back to Poland from Germany.

“Has Poland become a German relocation camp?!” asked Robert Bąkiewicz, a nationalist leader and former PiS parliamentary candidate who accompanied Kowalski on the visit. Bąkiewicz and leading PiS figures have recently organised protests on the German border against relocations.

“Germany is conducting a procedure of illegally transferring a large number of migrants to Poland all the time,” added Bąkiewicz. In fact, under the EU’s so-called Dublin Regulation, people who claim asylum in one member state but move to another can be sent back.

Wirtualna Polska notes that Bąkiewicz and PiS have not presented any evidence that Germany is carrying out such transfers illegally.

The website also spoke with Dariusz Piontowski, a PiS MP who represents the region, who said that the centre in Czerwony Bór houses both “some people arriving here [after] illegally crossing the border with Belarus, but also illegal migrants returned from other EU countries”.

Since 2021, Poland has faced a crisis on its border with Belarus, where tens of thousands of migrants and asylum seekers – mainly from the Middle East, Asia and Africa – have tried to cross with the encouragement and assistance of the Belarusian authorities.

Piontowski added that, whereas previously most residents of the centre were families with children, “now they are mainly young, single men”.

However, Alicja Łepkowska-Gołaś, a local MP from Poland’s main ruling party, the centrist Civic Platform (PO), accused PiS of “spreading disinformation” and sowing “social unrest” in order to “build political capital on fear and prejudice”.

She confirmed that around 115 foreigners are being housed in the centre but said that “there is no extraordinary situation or threat” and that “everything is taking place in accordance with the law and under the control of the relevant services”.

“I appeal to the residents of the region to be reasonable and not succumb to fear-based propaganda,” wrote Łepkowska-Gołaś. “Instead of building a wall between people, we need a fair debate and solutions based on facts, not political manipulation.”

The Office for Foreigners (UdSC), a state entity responsible, among other things, for overseeing asylum seekers while their claims are processed, initially did not respond to requests for comment from Wirtualna Polska.

However, on Wednesday evening it issued a statement saying that, having checked on the situation in Czerwony Bór, they found that “police have not received any reports of violations of the law by foreigners accommodated in the centre”.

“Only foreigners who do not pose a threat to state security or public order are accommodated in the centres,” they added. “All have their identity verified and documents issued to them ensuring their legal stay for the duration of the consideration of applications for international protection.”

“We know that foreigners differ in skin color, appearance and sometimes clothing from most local residents,” concluded the UdSC. “We know that sometimes they may not know local customs.”

“This is why we familiarise everyone with the legal and social norms in force in Poland and we have the ability to effectively respond to inappropriate behaviour, including the possibility of placing [them] in a guarded centre,” they added.

“These actions have meant that in the 23-year history of the centre [in Czerwony Bór], we do not remember any serious incidents related to contacts with local residents.”


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: Sebastian Mrówka/Facebook

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