(AP) The United Nations refugee agency on Friday expressed deep concern about legislation Poland adopted this week allowing the arbitrary rejection of migrants’ asylum applications.
The new legislation, approved by parliament on Thursday, came in response to the presence of hundreds of migrants from the Middle East, Asia and Africa on Poland’s border with Belarus. European Union member Poland accuses its neighbor of encouraging the migrants to cross the border, in response to sanctions the EU imposed on the Belarusian regime.
In practice, Polish border guards have for weeks been pushing back migrants illegally entering from Belarus.
Christine Goyer, the UNHCR representative in Poland, said in a statement that the new law “undermines the fundamental right to seek asylum set out in international and EU law.”
