Poland to launch campaign in irregular migrants’ home countries discouraging them from coming

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Notes from Poland is run by a small editorial team and is published by an independent, non-profit foundation that is funded through donations from our readers. We cannot do what we do without your support.

Prime Minister Donald Tusk has announced that Poland will launch a campaign aiming to discourage migrants from trying to enter the country across the border with Belarus. It will warn them that Poland has suspended the right to claim asylum and strengthened the border to prevent irregular crossings.

Since 2021, tens of thousands of migrants and asylum seekers – mainly from the Middle East, Asia and Africa – have tried to cross into Poland and other EU countries with the encouragement and assistance of the Belarusian authorities.

In a video on social media, Tusk on Friday announced that Poland “will soon start an information campaign in the seven countries where the largest number of migrants trying to illegally cross the Polish border come from”.

He did not specify which countries those would be. However, Polish border guard data show that, in 2024, the seven nationalities that most often submitted asylum claims after crossing from Belarus were Ethiopians, Eritreans, Somalis, Syrians, Sudanese, Yemenis and Afghans.

“Our message will be simple,” said Tusk. “The Polish border is sealed. Don’t believe the smugglers. Don’t believe Lukashenko, don’t believe Putin [the presidents of Belarus and Russia]. They lie to you when they say that this is the way into Europe.”

“You won’t apply for asylum here anymore,” continued Tusk, referring to a law introduced last week that suspends the right to apply for asylum at the border with Belarus. Those who are caught crossing are sent back to Belarus.

“But above all, you won’t cross the Polish border illegally,” warned the prime minister. “Thousands of soldiers, border guards and policemen, cameras and drones, guard every metre of it 24 hours a day.”

He then invited potential migrants to “see for yourself”, showing a video of a group who had tried to cross the border but were apprehended by Polish officers.

Both the former Law and Justice (PiS) government and Tusk’s current ruling coalition, which replaced PiS in power in December 2023, have taken tough measures in response to the security and migration crisis at the Belarus border.

Those have included introducing exclusion zones along the border to prevent people from entering the area, as well as building physical and electronic barriers along the frontier.

Notes from Poland is run by a small editorial team and published by an independent, non-profit foundation that is funded through donations from our readers. We cannot do what we do without your support.

Main image credit: KPRM/Flickr (under CC BY-NC-ND 2.0)

Daniel Tilles

Daniel Tilles is editor-in-chief of Notes from Poland. He has written on Polish affairs for a wide range of publications, including Foreign Policy, POLITICO Europe, EUobserver and Dziennik Gazeta Prawna.