Poland extends suspension of asylum rights at Belarus border
Poland’s parliament has approved a 60-day extension of the suspension of the right to apply for asylum for migrants who illegally cross the border with Belarus. The decision will take effect on September 18 and will be the ninth consecutive extension of this measure, Anadolu Agency reports.
Vote and duration
A total of 418 members of the Polish parliament voted to extend the suspension of the right to apply for asylum, while 16 voted against. Poland first suspended this right at the border with Belarus in March 2025. At the time, Polish officials said that the flow into the EU via Belarus consisted mainly of migrants from Middle Eastern and African countries.
Government position and statistics
In its submission to parliament, the Polish government said that dangerous incidents regularly occurred at the border, during which aggressive foreigners attacked Polish patrols. According to the government, migrants threw stones, bottles, bricks and other objects at Polish officers, as well as damaged sections of border barriers.
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The government also accused Belarusian state services of involvement in attacks on Polish military personnel, police officers and border guards. According to its data, border guards prevented attempts, supported by Belarusian state services, to build and use tunnels under the border to transfer groups of foreigners into Poland.
From March 2025 to August 16, Polish authorities rejected 492 asylum applications and accepted 178 applications from migrants belonging to vulnerable groups. In the first half of 2026, 235 attempts to illegally cross the border were recorded, compared with more than 15,500 during the same period in 2025.
Polish and European officials linked the influx of migrants to Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko. Human rights groups, meanwhile, accuse Polish authorities of returning some migrants to Belarus without allowing them to apply for asylum. Since 2021, dozens of migrants are believed to have died in the border area.
