WARSAW: Polish President Andrzej Duda on Wednesday condemned the government’s plan for a temporary suspension of the right to asylum for irregular migrants, calling it a “fatal mistake” and signaling he will not approve it.
Duda argued in a speech in parliament that the plan would block access to safe haven for Belarusians and Russians opposed to their governments in Minsk and Moscow. Prime Minister Donald Tusk replied that it would not apply to dissidents.
Tusk’s government on Thursday adopted the controversial plan intended to strengthen protection of Poland’s and the European Union’s eastern border from massive pressure from many thousands of unauthorized migrants from Africa and the Middle East. The EU says the pressure is sponsored by Minsk and Moscow as part of their hybrid war on the European bloc.
“Poland cannot and will not be helpless in this situation,” Tusk said in parliament.
Poland’s plan aims to send a signal that the country is not a source of easy asylum or visas into the EU.
It says that in the case of a ‘threat of destabilization of the country by migration inflow,” a temporary suspension of accepting asylum applications can be introduced on a given territory. The general rules of granting asylum in the EU member country will be toughened to prevent the procedure from serving as a gateway into all of the EU.
In many cases, irregular migrants apply for asylum in Poland, but before their requests are processed, they travel across the EU’s no-visa travel zone to reach Germany or other countries in Western Europe.
The plan, which failed to win support from four left-wing ministers in Tusk’s coalition government, still needs approval from parliament and from Duda to become binding. Duda has made it clear he will not back it.
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,” Duda said in his emotional speech Wednesday.
Migration and Poland’s plan are to be discussed at the upcoming EU summit and on its fringes this week in Brussels.
Polish president criticizes government’s no-asylum-for-irregular-migrants plan as a ‘grave mistake’
https://arab.news/2xqun
Polish president criticizes government’s no-asylum-for-irregular-migrants plan as a ‘grave mistake’
- Duda argued in a speech in parliament that the plan would block access to safe haven for Belarusians and Russians opposed to their governments in Minsk and Moscow
- Prime Minister Donald Tusk replied that it would not apply to dissidents
Belarus frees protest leader Kolesnikova, Nobel winner Bialiatski
- The charismatic Kolesnikova was the star of the 2020 movement that presented the most serious challenge to Lukashenko in his 30-year rule
- Bialiatski — a 63-year-old veteran rights defender and 2022 Nobel Peace Prize winner — is considered by Lukashenko to be a personal enemy
VILNIUS: Belarusian street protest leader Maria Kolesnikova and Nobel Prize winner Ales Bialiatski walked free on Saturday with 121 other political prisoners released in an unprecedented US-brokered deal.
Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko has locked up thousands of his opponents, critics and protesters since the 2020 election, which rights groups said was rigged and which triggered weeks of protests that almost toppled him.
The charismatic Kolesnikova was the star of the 2020 movement that presented the most serious challenge to Lukashenko in his 30-year rule.
She famously ripped up her passport as the KGB tried to deport her from the country.
Bialiatski — a 63-year-old veteran rights defender and 2022 Nobel Peace Prize winner — is considered by Lukashenko to be a personal enemy. He has documented rights abuses in the country, a close ally of Moscow, for decades.
Bialiatski stressed he would carry on fighting for civil rights and freedom for political prisoners after his surprise release, which he called a “huge emotional shock.”
“Our fight continues, and the Nobel Prize was, I think, a certain acknowledgement of our activity, our aspirations that have not yet come to fruition,” he told media in an interview from Vilnius.
“Therefore the fight continues,” he added.
He was awarded the prize in 2022 while already in jail.
After being taken out of prison, he said he was put on a bus and blindfolded until they reached the border with Lithuania.
His wife, Natalia Pinchuk, told AFP that her first words to him on his release were: “I love you.”
- ‘All be free’ -
Most of those freed, including Kolesnikova, were unexpectedly taken to Ukraine, surprising their allies who had been waiting for all of them in Lithuania.
She called for all political prisoners to be released.
“I’m thinking of those who are not yet free, and I’m very much looking forward to the moment when we can all embrace, when we can all see one another, and when we will all be free,” she said in a video interview with a Ukrainian government agency.
Hailing Bialiatski’s release, the Nobel Committee told AFP there were still more than 1,200 political prisoners inside the country.
“Their continued detention starkly illustrates the ongoing, systemic repression in the country,” said chairman Jorgen Watne Frydnes.
EU chief Ursula von der Leyen said their release should “strengthen our resolve... to keep fighting for all remaining prisoners behind bars in Belarus because they had the courage to speak truth to power.”
Jailed opponents of Lukashenko are often held incommunicado in a prison system notorious for its secrecy and harsh treatment.
There had been fears for the health of both Bialiatski and Kolesnikova while they were behind bars, though in interviews Saturday they both said they felt okay.
The deal was brokered by the United States, which has pushed for prisoners to be freed and offered some sanctions relief in return.
- Potash relief -
An envoy of US President Donald Trump, John Coale, was in Minsk this week for talks with Lukashenko.
He told reporters from state media that Washington would remove sanctions on the country’s potash industry, without providing specific details.
A US official separately told AFP that one American citizen was among the 123 released.
Minsk also freed Viktor Babariko, an ex-banker who tried to run against Lukashenko in the 2020 presidential election but was jailed instead.
Kolesnikova was part of a trio of women, including Svetlana Tikhanovskaya who stood against Lukashenko and now leads the opposition in exile, who headed the 2020 street protests.
She was serving an 11-year sentence in a prison colony.
In 2020, security services had put a sack over her head and drove her to the Ukrainian border. But she ripped up her passport, foiling the deportation plan, and was placed under arrest.
Former prisoners from the Gomel prison where she was held have told AFP she was barred from talking to other political prisoners and regularly thrown into harsh punishment cells.
An image of Kolesnikova making a heart shape with her hands became a symbol of anti-Lukashenko protests.
Bialiatski founded Viasna in the 1990s, two years after Lukashenko became president.
