Poland has announced the temporary suspension of asylum requests for migrants entering the country from the Belarus border.

Following the recent incidents of irregular migrants from the Belarus side cutting through the steel wall with machinery to illegally enter Polish territory, Poland has taken a step to halt the migrants.

Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk announced that the decision will come into effect after President Andrzej Duda signed a controversial bill allowing Polish authorities to suspend this right for up to 60 days at a time.

Tusk stated that the bill would be approved “without delay,” while Duda emphasized that the changes were necessary to enhance security at the country’s borders. CRITICISM FROM RIGHTS GROUPS

However, the decision has faced criticism from human rights groups. Human Rights Watch called on the Polish parliament last month, stating that the bill was incompatible with Poland’s international and EU obligations, and warned that Polish authorities could effectively close the Polish-Belarus border through illegal and ill-intentioned pushbacks. Tusk, however, rejected the criticisms from human rights groups.

The government previously stated that the suspension measures would only be temporarily applied to individuals posing a threat to state security and aggressive migrant groups attempting to cross the border. It was reported that there were 400 attempted intrusions at the Poland-Belarus border between March 21-24. Furthermore, over 2,300 illegal border crossing attempts have been recorded at the Belarus border since the beginning of 2025.

STEEL WALL PROJECT

Since 2021, there has been a significant increase in the number of migrants entering Poland illegally from Belarus and Russia, prompting Poland to complete a 186 km long, 5.5 meters high steel wall project along the Belarus border in 2022 to prevent the influx of migrants.