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Government migration strategy. Positions of non-governmental organizations

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Suspension of the right to apply for asylum is blatantly illegal and Prime Minister Donald Tusk knows it, said Dinushika Dissanayake, Amnesty International's deputy regional director for Europe, referring to the Polish government's migration strategy. Doctors Without Borders are also “deeply concerned.” The Granica Group estimates that the announced actions “will lead to deepening chaos and lawlessness on the border, which constitutes a threat to the security of our community.”

On Thursday, the Chancellery of the Prime Minister published the government migration strategy for 2025-2030 on its website. The document – as the government justifies – is intended to contribute to the creation of transparent and safe immigration rules, which will be controlled by state institutions. One of the assumptions of the 36-page strategy is the temporary and territorial suspension of the right to accept asylum applications.

LOOK: The draft government migration strategy for 2025-2030 has been published

“It's high time the European Commission took its watchdog role seriously.”

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Referring to the strategy, Amnesty International she pointed out that it caused a strong reaction from non-governmental organizations not only in Poland but also abroad. AI – citing experts – assessed that the proposal violates international regulations and also puts the lives and health of people seeking safety at risk.

“Suspension of the right to apply for asylum is blatantly illegal and Prime Minister Tusk knows it. EU member states such as Poland are politically playing with the rights of refugees and migrants. From Poland to Finland, Greece and Germany, so-called emergency situations are being exploited to adopt laws that seriously limit access to international protection,” said Dinushika Dissanayake, Amnesty International's deputy regional director for Europe.

Amnesty International indicated that the action proposed by the Polish government applies both to people crossing the land border irregularly and to those at official border crossings. “In practice, the introduction of such a regulation will harm people seeking safety and will punish those who may have fallen victim to violence and human trafficking or have been lured to the borders of the European Union under false pretenses. Suspension of the right to asylum would also be a violation of the European Union regulation on crisis and force majeure, which is part of the Pact on Migration and Asylum,” the organization noted.

According to Dissanayake, states have a number of tools at their disposal to ensure security, “but they must always safeguard human rights, including the right to asylum, protected by the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights.” “It is high time for the European Commission to take its role as guardian of the treaties seriously and send a clear signal that fundamental rights cannot be bent to political interests,” she said.

The government adopted a migration strategy despite protests from human rights organizationsAdrianna Otręba/Fakty TVN

“Human rights are non-negotiable”

The Polish section of AI reacted to the Polish government's plans and wrote that “there is no doubt that this is an illegal, unacceptable and directly harmful action to human rights.” “No politician in Poland has the tools or ability to suspend the application of international law or the Constitution. Suspension, even temporarily, of the right to asylum is as unacceptable as suspension of freedom of speech or the right to a court. Human rights are non-negotiable and cannot be subject to political disputes ” – said the director of AI Polska, Anna BÅ‚aszczak-Banasiak.

Social organizations sent a letter to the Prime Minister in which they remind that “difficult times do not exempt us from humanity and compliance with the law.” Amnesty International has also prepared a petition addressed to Donald Tusk, appealing for compliance with international protection standards human rights.

Suspension of the right to asylum “will have foreseeable dramatic consequences”

Doctors Without Borders is also “deeply concerned” about the intentions of the Polish government. “In particular, plans to introduce the possibility of suspending the right to asylum. Such a suspension will have predictable, dramatic consequences for people seeking safety in Europe. Doctors Without Borders calls on the Polish authorities to decisively change course of action and take all necessary measures to ensure the protection and rights of refugees and migrants “- emphasized the organization in a statement.

Granica Group: actions will lead to deepening chaos and lawlessness on the border

The Granica Group also presented its position. He writes that the migration strategy is titled “Regain control. Ensure security”, while the government announces actions that, in the group's opinion, “will have exactly the opposite effect – they will lead to deepening chaos and lawlessness on the border, which constitutes a threat to the security of our community.”

“Suspension of the right to submit applications for international protection is a violation of Article 18 of the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union, the Geneva Convention, the Convention on the Rights of the Child and Article 56 of the Constitution of the Republic of Poland. The essence of fundamental human rights is that they are inviolable. By announcing the temporary and territorial suspension of the right to submit applications for international protection (commonly called asylum), Prime Minister Donald Tusk is de facto attacking human rights and suspending the process of restoring the rule of law,” we read.

In the opinion of the Granica Group, “violence and pushbacks are the denial of control.” “They involve deporting people to the territory of Belarus without determining their situation, without verifying them, sometimes even without registering their data. The solution here is to apply existing procedures in accordance with national and international law, which assume a reliable process of establishing the identity and individual assessment of the situation of each person. . Moreover, experiences from other borders teach us that there is no border in the world that people would not be able to cross in search of safety,” says Grupa Granica.

He adds that “the key to regaining control is applying the law, creating legal migration routes, implementing a wise reception and integration policy and coordinating activities between services, institutions and non-governmental organizations.”

The position also emphasized that “the task of the government is to ensure the safety of all people staying in the territory of the Republic of Poland.” “Meanwhile, migrant people – the vast majority of them defenseless civilians – are exposed to deportations that pose a threat to their health and lives, and experience violence, not only from the Belarusian but also Polish services. We consider it particularly dangerous to set a precedent of suspending the right to apply for international protection. Taking into account the geopolitical situation and numerous historical lessons, it is in Poland's interest that the right to asylum is recognized by all European countries as fundamental and inviolable,” it added.

The Granica Group calls on the government to, among other things, “abandon legislative work aimed at suspending the right to submit applications for international protection” and “listen to and take into account the voices of experts from the migrant, non-governmental and scientific community when creating the state's migration strategy, and especially to analyze the report Committee for Migration Research of the Polish Academy of Sciences, which is the result of extensive public consultations ordered by the Ministry of Interior and Administration and aimed at providing knowledge and tools for developing a new migration strategy. “In our opinion, the result of these studies was not included in the migration strategy proposed by the government,” it added.

SEE THE FULL STATEMENT OF THE GRANICA GROUP

Dr. Machińska: You made me very sad, Mr. Prime Minister. What he said was astonishing

Dr. Machińska: You made me very sad, Mr. Prime Minister. What he said was astonishingTVN24

Government migration strategy

The government's migration strategy emphasized, among other things, the need to recognize the right of a country threatened by hybrid activities to deny access to its territory to a foreigner who uses the submission of an application for international protection for this purpose.

“The same principle should apply to a foreigner who has grounds to be considered a threat to the society of the host country. In this context, an instrument of temporary and territorial suspension of the right to submit asylum applications is proposed,” we read in the strategy.

The authors of the document wrote that the issues of national and international protection for foreigners are largely regulated by international law. Therefore, Poland will strive to change the general approach to this issue, among others, at the level of the European Union.

“This applies not only to illegal border crossings outside border crossings, but also to the possibility of temporarily and territorially suspending the acceptance of applications at the crossings themselves or outside them in the event of a direct threat to state security,” wrote the authors of the project. They noted that it had introduced similar solutions Finlandwhich resulted in “the initiation of a discussion on the possibility of implementing this solution in EU law.”

READ ALSO: Tusk: I have had meetings with all the most important players. What I wanted, I achieved

Tusk: the state must regain 100% control

Prime Minister Donald Tusk, announcing the strategyemphasized that “the state must regain 100% control over who comes to and enters Poland.” – If, for example, I say loudly today that one of the elements of the migration strategy will be the temporary territorial suspension of the right to asylum, and I demand recognition in Europe for this decision, it will be because we know well how it is used by Lukashenko and Putin. , by smugglers, people smugglers, human traffickers. How is the right to asylum being used exactly contrary to the essence of the right to asylum – he said on Saturday.

Referring, among other things, to the migration pact, the Prime Minister assured that even if “he gets punched in the head”, he intends to be absolutely tough and ruthless in conducting migration policy. – We will not respect or implement any European, EU ideas if we are sure that they undermine our security – he said. – The state is responsible for bringing people to Poland who want to work honestly, pay taxes, integrate with Polish society, and study at a real university. And these are people who deserve respect, respect, he emphasized.

Main photo source: Artur Reszko/PAP



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