Poland's president criticizes the planned suspension of the right to asylum as a 'fatal mistake'

WARSAW, Poland — Poland's president on Wednesday condemned the government’s contentious plan to suspend the right to asylum for irregular migrants, calling it a “fatal mistake.”

President Andrzej Duda, whose approval is needed for the plan to take effect, argued in parliament that it would block access to safe haven for people in Russia and neighboring Belarus who oppose their governments. Prime Minister Donald Tusk replied that it would not apply to dissidents.

Tusk's government on Tuesday adopted the five-year plan that's intended to strengthen protection of Poland’s, and the European Union’s, eastern border from pressure from thousands of unauthorized migrants from Africa and the Middle East that started in 2021. It doesn't affect people coming in from neighboring Ukraine.

The EU asserts that the migration pressure is sponsored by Minsk and Moscow as part of their hybrid war on the bloc in response to its support for Ukraine's struggle against Russian invasion.

“Poland cannot and will not be helpless in this situation,” Tusk said in parliament.

Poland’s plan aims to signal that the country is not a source of easy asylum or visas into the EU. In many cases, irregular migrants apply for asylum in Poland, but before requests are processed, they travel across the EU’s no-visa travel zone to reach Germany or other countries in Western Europe. Germany recently expanded controls on its borders to fight irregular migration.

The plan says that in the case of a "threat of destabilization of the country by migration inflow," the acceptance of asylum applications can be suspended. The general rules of granting asylum will be toughened.

A government communique posted Tuesday night says migration decisions will weigh the country of origin, reason for entry and scale of arrivals.

Human rights organizations have protested the plan, which failed to win support from four left-wing ministers in Tusk's coalition government. It still needs approval from parliament and Duda to become binding. But Duda has made it clear he will not back it.

Duda on Wednesday asserted that Russian President Vladimir Putin and Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko “are trying to destabilize the situation on our border, in the EU, and your response to this is to deprive people whom Putin and Lukashenko imprison and persecute of a safe haven. It must be some fatal mistake.”

Poland's plan will be discussed at the upcoming EU summit this week in Brussels.

In a letter Monday to EU leaders, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said Russia and Belarus are “exercising pressure on the EU’s external border by weaponizing people, undermining the security of our union." She called for a “clear and determined European response.”

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This story has been corrected to say the government decision was Tuesday, not Thursday.