According to migration studies expert Sara Bojarczuk, the Polish government’s push for a temporary suspension of the right to asylum “clearly contradicts” European and humanitarian law and the Geneva Conventions.
On Saturday Poland’s prime minister, Donald Tusk, announced that the country will temporarily suspend the right to asylum as part of its migratory policy to tackle illegal migration, particularly at the border with Belarus, arguing that the right to asylum had been used by Moscow and Minsk as a tool of hybrid war.
Bojarczuk told TVP World that the asylum suspension “also shows that we [Poland] don't really align with the policies that have been implemented on a European level because this is not what the migration pact has announced.”
She pointed out that this approach creates a divide between refugees, with Poland welcoming millions of Ukrainians while rejecting others, like Syrians, as “worse,” which makes it harder for these people to integrate into Polish society.
“The rhetoric of security and blocking asylum and posing migration as a threat in a dominant discourse is only going to make that integration worse and much more difficult for ordinary people,” she said.
On the other hand, Agnieszka Chłoń-Domińczak from the Warsaw School of Economics said that while asylum is a basic human right under international law, migration also addresses Poland's shrinking labor force. She added that as Poland’s migrant population grows, becoming increasingly multicultural, integration is key.
She said: “We need not only migration policy but also social and labor policies that support the integration of migrants into our society.”
Chłoń-Domińczak also said that the prime minister will announce on October 15 the rest of Poland’s migration strategy encompassing migrants coming to Poland, but also Poles leaving, and efforts to bring those who have left back to the country.
Bojarczuk told TVP World that the asylum suspension “also shows that we [Poland] don't really align with the policies that have been implemented on a European level because this is not what the migration pact has announced.”
She pointed out that this approach creates a divide between refugees, with Poland welcoming millions of Ukrainians while rejecting others, like Syrians, as “worse,” which makes it harder for these people to integrate into Polish society.
“The rhetoric of security and blocking asylum and posing migration as a threat in a dominant discourse is only going to make that integration worse and much more difficult for ordinary people,” she said.
On the other hand, Agnieszka Chłoń-Domińczak from the Warsaw School of Economics said that while asylum is a basic human right under international law, migration also addresses Poland's shrinking labor force. She added that as Poland’s migrant population grows, becoming increasingly multicultural, integration is key.
She said: “We need not only migration policy but also social and labor policies that support the integration of migrants into our society.”
Chłoń-Domińczak also said that the prime minister will announce on October 15 the rest of Poland’s migration strategy encompassing migrants coming to Poland, but also Poles leaving, and efforts to bring those who have left back to the country.
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