Poland’s opposition Conservatives (PiS) were unconvinced by the centre-left government’s announcements of 50 per cent cuts in the issuing of visas to Africans and Asians.
The party has accused the government of dithering over the imposition of border controls with Germany in response to allegations of that country pushing back migrants into Poland.
Prime Minister Donald Tusk has claimed the previous PiS government allowed mass non-European Union immigration and issued hundreds of thousands of working visas for Asians and Africans. The PM argued it was his government that was reducing migration levels.
The Tusk government was now facing public protests against the construction of 49 EU-funded migrant integration centres. They were designed to help migrants integrate into Polish society by the provision of language courses as well as legal and psychological support.
On June 11, Tusk declared the clampdown on visas for Asians and Africans and said he “would not hesitate” to impose border controls should migratory pressure increase. He added, though, that “the current pressure is not significant”.
Previously, there were no checks on the border between Poland and Germany since both were in the European Schengen free-travel area. Then, in 2023, Germany introduced controls on its side of the border in an effort to prevent the unlawful entry of migrants.
That move was criticised by Poland, which claimed it made it harder for Poles to cross the border and because Germany had sent thousands of migrants back to Poland as they had no right of entry or had entered illegally.
The PiS has organised protests against the German pushbacks and has criticised Tusk for what it said was his dithering over the reintroduction of controls on Poland’s border with Germany.
The party does supports Tusk’s action on the eastern border with Belarus, where the Poland has ceased to take asylum applications having suspended compliance with the EU’s Dublin Regulation.
The head of the PIS-allied Border Defence Movement (ROG), Robert Bąkiewicz, told Brussels Signal on June 18 that his organisation would soon be submitting to Polish prosecutors allegations of “German police officers being involved in the illegal transfer and deportation of migrants to Poland, effectively acting as an organised group breaking the law”.
According to Bąkiewicz, the claims made by ROG were well documented.
“This will not be an empty claim. We have documented numerous cases of migrants being transferred across the Polish border from Germany, of them being denied entry into Germany despite having the legal right to remain,” he said.
“We also have evidence and witness accounts indicating that, prior to being sent to Poland, migrants are stripped of their documents, phones, and personal belongings, effectively preventing any identification of their identity or origin, so that German authorities can then claim the migrants entered Germany from Poland,” Bąkiewicz added.
PiS MP Radosław Fogiel has accused the government of “inaction meaning that we are now facing a hybrid war on both our eastern and western borders”. He said he believed that the failure to introduce border checks with Germany proved that Tusk “is incapable of being assertive towards Germany”.
Fogiel told weekly Gazeta Polska that the Polish Government was being too timid.
“Just consider: Tiny Luxembourg filed a complaint with the European Commission over German controls,” he added.
“The Netherlands has implemented its own checks and Austria stated from the outset that it would not accept any migrants from Germany unless all procedures were strictly followed. The Polish Government has done nothing and continues to do nothing,” said Fogiel.
Former PiS foreign minister Szymon Szynkowski vel Sęk has also accused the present government of failing to properly staff the western border.
“The government’s inaction is not just about the lack of reciprocal border controls, it’s also about the imbalance in staffing,” he said.
“At the border point at Świecko, there are over 300 German officers, while the Polish Border Guard has fewer than 100”, the ex-minister added and urged the government to follow what he termed the national interest and strengthen the western border.
