WARSAW: Thousands of Poles took to the streets of Warsaw on Saturday to march against illegal immigration and European migration policy, according to AFP journalists.
Under heavy rain, protesters heeded a call from the main opposition Law and Justice party (PiS), which backs nationalist President Karol Nawrocki.
Supporters gathered at Castle Square at 2:00 p.m. (12:00 GMT) in the city’s Old Town, with many arriving by bus from across the country, waving Polish flags.
“I see what is happening in the West. I have two children who live in Germany, and I see the danger there and its impact on German identity. Germans now feel like minorities in their own country,” a 64-year-old retiree told AFP.
A large majority of the country, including supporters of Prime Minister Donald Tusk’s pro-EU governing coalition, favors the tightening of migration policy and a tougher stance on Ukrainian refugees, according to opinion polls.
Nawrocki and Tusk’s government are divided on immigration, foreign policy and support for Ukraine.
Nawrocki and the PiS party have repeatedly criticized the European Union’s migration pact, adopted last year and set to come into force in June 2026.
Under the agreement, member states would either be required to take in thousands of migrants from “frontline” countries or provide additional funding instead.
In a letter to European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen this week, Nawrocki said Poland, which has welcomed more than one million Ukrainian refugees since Russia’s full-scale invasion of their country in February 2022, had done its part.
“The overwhelming majority of Poles, from all political leanings, oppose the forced relocation of migrants to Poland,” he wrote.
“I will not consent to the implementation of the Migration and Asylum Pact in Poland,” he added.
Thousands rally in Warsaw against migrant policies
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Thousands rally in Warsaw against migrant policies
- Under heavy rain, protesters heeded a call from the main opposition Law and Justice party
- Nawrocki and Tusk’s government are divided on immigration, foreign policy and support for Ukraine
Greek coast guard search for 15 after migrant boat found adrift
- The two survivors reported that the vessel had become unstable due to bad weather and there was no means of getting shelter, food or water
ATHENS: Greek coast guard were on Monday searching for 15 people who fell into the water from a migrant boat that was found drifting off the coast of Crete with 17 bodies on board.
The 17 fatalities, all of them men, were discovered on Saturday on the craft, which was taking on water and partially deflated, some 26 nautical miles (48 kilometers) southwest of the island.
Post-mortem examinations were being carried out to determine how they died but Greek public television channel ERT suggested they may have suffered from hypothermia or dehydration.
A Greek coast guard spokeswoman told AFP that two survivors reported that “15 people fell in the water” after the motor cut out on Thursday, then the vessel drifted for two days.
At the time, Crete and much of the rest of Greece was battered by heavy rain and storms.
The two survivors reported that the vessel had become unstable due to bad weather and there was no means of getting shelter, food or water.
The vessel had 34 people on board and had left the Libyan port of Tobruk on Wednesday, the Greek port authorities said. Most of those who died came from Sudan and Egypt.
It was initially spotted by a Turkish-flagged cargo ship on Saturday, triggering a search that included ships and aircraft from the Greek coast guard and the European Union border agency Frontex.
Migrants have been trying to reach Crete from Libya for the last year, as a way of entering the European Union. But the Mediterranean crossing is perilous.
In Brussels, the EU’s 27 members on Monday backed a significant tightening of immigration policy, including the concept of returning failed asylum-seekers to “return hubs” outside the bloc.
The UN refugee agency said more than 16,770 asylum seekers in the EU have arrived on Crete since the start of the year — more than any other island in the Aegean Sea.
Greece’s conservative government has also toughened its migration policy, suspending asylum claims for three months, particularly those coming to Crete from Libya.
