Poland Pushes EU to Adopt Asylum Suspension Model After 18 Months

Poland is pressing the European Union to permit temporary suspensions of asylum applications during episodes of what it calls "instrumentalized" mass migration, nearly 18 months after Warsaw stopped registering claims from migrants crossing its border with Belarus.

Polish authorities introduced the measure in March 2025 as a temporary emergency response to what they described as a push by Russia and its ally Belarus to destabilize the country by directing tens of thousands of migrants toward the EU. The policy has remained in force since.

The Poland-Belarus border runs for about 400 kilometers (250 miles). Since 2021, EU authorities have accused Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko of weaponizing migration by luring people to his country to find an easier entry point into the bloc than the more dangerous Mediterranean routes.

The prospect of an EU-wide approach appeared to move closer on Sept. 16, when European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen announced that the EU executive branch would soon propose a new "European emergency response framework" for cases of "engineered and weaponized" mass migration. She said the framework would allow for "flexibility" in applying standard migration procedures under specific circumstances and for a limited period, without specifying which procedures would be made flexible.

Poland's deputy interior minister in charge of migration, Maciej Duszczyk, welcomed the announcement as a sign that Europe was embracing what he calls "the Polish solution." He said the July border crisis in Ceuta, when more than 70,000 people suddenly crossed from Morocco into the Spanish enclave in North Africa, "made the EU realize" that other countries can face similar border crises.

Tineke Strik, a Dutch member of the European Parliament, said she fears the new emergency framework is poised to take the Polish model EU-wide and legitimize the curtailing of asylum. "If you normalize it, if you make it the default policy of all EU member states, you are not falling outside of the framework," she said. "It simply has been legalized."

Michael O'Flaherty, the human rights commissioner for the Council of Europe, said the fact that the suspension of the right to asylum now appears in EU-level discussions "worries" him because "it can very easily cross the line into a violation of international law."

Critics say legalizing the suspension of asylum would constitute a major blow to fundamental human rights, particularly the principle of non-refoulement, which bars countries from returning people to places where they may face persecution. The principle was enshrined in the postwar refugee protection system after Jews and others fleeing Nazi persecution were refused safe haven during World War II.

Duszczyk said the suspension of the right to asylum in Poland is fully compatible with international law and that people in the most vulnerable categories — pregnant women, children or those facing persecution in Belarus — can still apply for asylum. "Each person who appears on the border has the right to speak to the Polish border guards and explain their situation," he said.

But the Polish ombudsman and nongovernmental organizations assisting migrants on the border contradict the minister. Karolina Czerwinska from the Association for Legal Intervention, a Polish NGO offering legal aid to migrants, said that "visibly pregnant women might stand a chance, but in the case of sick people or teenagers who are minors, their arguments are typically undermined."

Duszczyk said the world today has changed since the 1950s, when countries recovering from the traumas of World War II created a system of international law, including refugee rights, meant to protect individuals from state violence. Czerwinska said that "we Poles located on the front lines of the war in Ukraine should really make sure human rights are respected. We may need to make use of them ourselves."

Human rights groups said von der Leyen's announcement came as a surprise, because the EU's new Pact on Migration and Asylum, which took effect three months ago, already allowed countries faced with border crises to deviate from standard asylum procedures by extending deadlines for processing applications and holding migrants in detention for longer periods.

Duszczyk said von der Leyen's announcement meant the European Commission recognized the new pact was "not enough" and that "we need a new instrument in EU law which guarantees that sometimes we can suspend normal procedures and have a sort of state of emergency." According to the Polish minister, the European Commission is expected to give more details about the framework during a summit of interior ministers on Oct. 1, with discussions continuing during a European Council summit later that month.