WARSAW (Reuters) -Poland’s president condemned a government plan to temporarily suspend the right to asylum on Wednesday, saying it would harm members of the Belarusian opposition fleeing repression in their own country.
The Polish government approved a new migration strategy late on Tuesday that allows it to stop accepting asylum applications if the influx of people is destabilising the country, a measure which outraged human rights activists but which is popular with voters ahead of a 2025 presidential election.
“The announcements of the prime minister in recent days will not serve to secure our border and limit migration,” Andrzej Duda, an ally of nationalist opposition party Law and Justice (PiS), said in a speech to parliament.
“They will prevent representatives of the Belarusian opposition from seeking refuge in Poland.”
Poland has become home to thousands of opposition supporters from its eastern neighbour since Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko won an election in 2020 which critics say was rigged.
The country has been grappling with a migrant crisis on its border with Belarus since 2021. Warsaw and the EU say Belarus and its ally Russia have orchestrated the situation by funnelling people from the Middle East and Africa to the border, something Minsk and Moscow deny.
In an interview with Gazeta Wyborcza daily published on Wednesday, Prime Minister Donald Tusk said the asylum suspension plan was necessary and stressed that it would be temporary.
In many European countries, centrists like Tusk have adopted more hardline policies on migration in a bid to fend off nationalist and far-right opponents.
“The future of Europe and Poland will be played out in this area,” Tusk told Gazeta Wyborcza daily, referring to border security. “The only question is whether right-wing populists or liberal democracy will provide it.”
In response to member states concerns over the issue, the EU has offered to tighten its migration stance ahead of a summit on Oct. 17-18.
Duda joined critics ranging from NGOs that help migrants to nationalist opposition lawmakers who themselves advocate strict rules. According to opponents of the new policy it breaks the constitution and international law.
The migration strategy, which also aims to introduce a more targeted approach to granting visas to workers and students as well as to encourage Poles living abroad to return, was adopted despite dissenting opinions from four left-wing ministers, the government’s website said.
(Reporting by Alan Charlish, Pawel Florkiewicz, Tymon Miller, Editing by Angus MacSwan)
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