Human
rights groups urge Polish PM to shelve plan to suspend right to asylum
More than 60
NGOs including Holocaust memorial group tell Donald Tusk region’s volatility
‘doesn’t exempt us from humanity’
Ashifa
Kassam
Tue 15 Oct
2024 05.00 BST
Human rights
and a Holocaust memorial group have urged the Polish prime minister to shelve
plans to temporarily suspend the right to asylum, telling him that the region’s
volatility “doesn’t exempt us from humanity”.
The
intervention from more than 60 NGOs including Amnesty International and the
Auschwitz-Birkenau Foundation comes after Donald Tusk told his party of plans
to introduce a new migration strategy.
It would
include “the temporary territorial suspension of the right to asylum”, he said.
“I will demand this, I will demand recognition in Europe for this decision.”
In an open
letter, the coalition of NGOs criticised the comments, saying that fundamental
rights and freedoms were not fodder for discussion or political bargaining. “It
is thanks to them that thousands of Polish women and men found shelter abroad
in the difficult times of communist totalitarianism,” it read.
“We live in
difficult and uncertain times of war, conflicts breaking out all over the
world, and we ourselves function on the edge of a war,” it added. “But this
doesn’t exempt us from humanity and from observing the law.”
Since 2021,
Warsaw and the EU have accused Belarus and Russia of encouraging migrants and
refugees, most of them from the Middle East and Africa, to travel to Minsk and
onwards to the Polish border.
The
migratory route was seized on by politicians hoping to score political points,
leading rights groups to warn of pushbacks and violence against those seeking a
better life. Hundreds of people have gone missing, while dozens of deaths have
been documented.
As Poland
gears up for presidential elections expected in May, Tusk on Saturday hinted
that his campaign would focus on migration as he vowed to reduce irregular
migration to “a minimum” and “regain 100% of the control over who enters and
leaves Poland”.
He did not
offer further details on how he planned to temporarily suspend asylum or
explain how he would skirt international laws that oblige countries to offer
the right of asylum to people seeking protection.
Members of
Tusk’s coalition government expressed concern over the move. The parliament
speaker Szymon Hołownia, whose centre-right Poland 2050 party is part of Tusk’s
ruling coalition, stressed that Tusk had been speaking only for his own party.
“We are of
the opinion that the right to asylum is ‘sacred’ in international law,”
Hołownia said on social media. Krzysztof Śmiszek of the Left, another coalition
member, pointed to the importance that respect for the law had played in
guiding the country during the previous rightwing government of the Law and
Justice (PiS) party.
“The rule of
law also means respect for international law,” Śmiszek wrote on social media.
“It showed us the way during the dark rule of PiS. Let’s not stray from this
path.”
While the EU
declined to comment on the specific plans, a spokesperson for the European
commission said it was in touch with Polish authorities to find out more
details. She acknowledged the need to work towards a European solution capable
of tackling “hybrid attacks” from Russia and Belarus, but noted that “member
states have international and EU obligations, including the obligation to
provide access to the asylum procedure.”
On Monday,
Tusk defended his plans. “It is our right and our duty to protect the Polish
and European border,” he wrote on social media. “Its security will not be
negotiated.”
Tusk’s plans
come months after Finland adopted a new law that granted border guards power to
push back asylum seekers crossing from Russia.
While more
details of the Polish plan are to be revealed on Tuesday, it appears that Tusk
is hoping to bolster political support before the election by targeting
migration, said Małgorzata Szuleka of Poland’s oldest human rights
organisation, the Helsinki Foundation for Human Rights.
“It’s so
disappointing to see this coming from this government, who made so many
promises for increased cooperation and policymaking with civil society,” she
said. “When it comes to the question of migration, we were supposed to have
policy but all we have is politics.”
She
described the plans as unworkable. “It goes without saying that it is legally
impossible to suspend the right to asylum,” she said, citing international law,
EU law and the Polish constitution. “I read this statement purely for the
purpose of national politics. It is extremely populistic.”
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