When Poland stopped registering asylum applications from migrants entering from Belarus in March 2025, authorities presented it as a temporary emergency measure to counter what they saw as a push by Russia and its ally Belarus to destabilize the country by directing tens of thousands of migrants toward the European Union.
But the policy has remained in force for the past 18 months, and Poland is now urging the 27-nation bloc to allow temporary suspensions of asylum applications during episodes of “instrumentalized” mass migration elsewhere — a move that rights advocates warn could violate international law.
