Gov't adopts draft laws on foreigners, asylum, says Polish PM
Donald Tusk, the Polish prime minister, has said that the government has adopted a package of bills concerning foreigners, including new asylum draft laws.
"We have started to regain control over Poland's borders and the visa issuance system," Tusk told reporters after a government meeting on Wednesday.
He added that the government had adopted a package of bills concerning foreigners, including new asylum draft laws, which would be filed with the Sejm, lower house of parliament.
"I hope that there will be a majority in the Sejm which will adopt these new asylum bills," the prime minister said, adding that he was aware of many remarks voiced by the opposition Law and Justice (PiS) party and the Left.
Tusk explained that "the right, which he was not going to deprive anybody of, is being used today mainly at the border with Belarus by the enemies of the Polish state.
The prime minister said that an organised group of human traffickers and Belarusian special services, which are being supported by Russian services, had, in fact, staged a hybrid war on the border with Poland.
In accordance with the adopted asylum bill, the limitation of the right to apply for international protection will be temporary, and the limitation period cannot exceed 60 days at a time.
Since 2021, Poland has seen a migration crisis on its border with Belarus. Warsaw says Minsk, in collaboration with Moscow, has launched organised smuggling of migrants and refugees in a bid to destabilise Nato's eastern flank and the EU.
The former Law and Justice (PiS) government spent millions of zloty on a new high-tech fence along the Belarusian border to prevent migrants from getting into the country. (PAP)
at/ mf/ pel/