Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk said his country has received hundreds of thousands of Ukrainian and Belarusian asylum seekers and will not accept any asylum seekers under the EU Migration and Asylum Agreement and will not pay for them.
Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk said after the European Union (EU) Council approved the new Migration and Asylum Agreement that his country will not accept any asylum seekers. Speaking at a press conference after the cabinet meeting, Prime Minister Donald Tusk stated that they have so far received hundreds of thousands of Ukrainian asylum seekers due to the war as well as Belarusian asylum seekers, and that they will not implement the provision in the agreement to pay 20 thousand Euros in case of not accepting asylum seekers. Tusk said, “The EU will not impose a migrant quota on us. We will not have to take any migrants, we will not pay for anything. But we will continue to receive financial support from the EU for hosting hundreds of thousands of migrants.”
Stating that the flow of funds from the EU to equip the soldiers and border guards working on Poland’s eastern border will also continue, Donald Tusk said that the migration pressure is driven by Russia and Belarus, that this is not the migration of peoples, but a hybrid war to destabilize Poland and Europe.
What does the Agreement on Migration and Asylum contain?
The EU Council adopted today the Agreement on Migration and Asylum, which includes new measures to prevent irregular migration. The law, which only Poland, Hungary and Slovakia voted against, requires a solidarity mechanism for all EU member states to reduce the burden of asylum seekers in Greece, Italy and Spain, where illegal migration to the EU is high. Accordingly, EU countries will accept the number of asylum seekers determined for them according to their population and economy, while countries that refuse to accept asylum seekers will pay 20 thousand Euros per asylum seeker. The law, which will enter into force in 2026, also includes a series of regulations such as the rapid finalization of asylum seekers’ applications and the rapid repatriation of those whose applications are not accepted.
