Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk has defended his country’s planned crackdown on migrants at the border with Belarus. On Poland’s eastern border we are not dealing with refugees who arrived there spontaneously and by chance, Tusk told the daily newspaper “Gazeta Wyborcza” (Wednesday’s edition). “These actions are organized on a paramilitary basis,” he explained.
“We increasingly see groups being organized in Syria and Iran that are trained not only for illegal border crossings, but also for behavior that we in NATO must describe as dangerous,” the Polish Prime Minister continued. There is a whole system of recruitment through Russian and Belarusian diplomatic missions in different countries, Tusk continued.
Criminals transported from prison to Polish border
There are findings from Syria that criminals and people with ties to terrorist organizations are being released from prisons and taken to the Polish-Belarusian border. This is also an external border of the EU.
Right to asylum temporarily suspended
Poland wants to temporarily suspend the right to asylum for irregular migrants at the border with Belarus with a new law. The draft law should be available within a few weeks. On Tuesday, Tusk’s center-left government adopted a document on migration that also provides for a temporary restriction on the right to asylum.
Many access attempts despite a five meter high fence
Poland and the EU accuse Russian President Vladimir Putin and his ally, Belarusian leader Alexander Lukashenko, of organizing migrants from crisis areas to the EU’s external border to put pressure on the West. Despite the construction of a fence more than five meters high and an electronic surveillance system, migrants attempt to cross the border illegally every day. Since the beginning of the year, the Border Patrol has recorded almost 28,000 such attempts.
President Duda fears negative consequences
Polish head of state Andrzej Duda criticized the Tusk government’s planned restrictions on the right to asylum. “This will not serve to close the border and prevent illegal migration,” Duda said in a speech to parliament. Instead, the planned law will prevent representatives of the Belarusian opposition, who are persecuted by Lukashenko’s regime, from receiving asylum in Poland. “This is clearly a fatal mistake,” Duda criticized.
Tusk responded that there had not been a single incident of a Belarusian opposition member attempting to cross the border illegally. “Mr President, you can’t think of anything more stupid,” Tusk said.
Source: Krone
I am Ida Scott, a journalist and content author with a passion for uncovering the truth. I have been writing professionally for Today Times Live since 2020 and specialize in political news. My career began when I was just 17; I had already developed a knack for research and an eye for detail which made me stand out from my peers.
