Polish president criticizes government's no-asylum-for-irregular-migrants plan as a 'grave mistake'

Polish President Andrzej Duda has condemned the government's plan for a temporary suspension of the right to asylum for irregular migrants, calling it a “fatal mistake.”

WARSAW, Poland -- Polish President Andrzej Duda on Wednesday condemned the government’s plan for a temporary suspension of the right to asylum for irregular migrants, calling it a “fatal mistake” and signaling he will not approve it.

Duda argued in a speech in parliament that the plan would block access to safe haven for Belarusians and Russians opposed to their governments in Minsk and Moscow. Prime Minister Donald Tusk replied that it would not apply to dissidents.

Tusk's government on Thursday adopted the controversial plan intended to strengthen protection of Poland’s and the European Union’s eastern border from massive pressure from many thousands of unauthorized migrants from Africa and the Middle East. The EU says the pressure is sponsored by Minsk and Moscow as part of their hybrid war on the European bloc.

“Poland cannot and will not be helpless in this situation,” Tusk said in parliament.

Poland’s plan aims to send a signal that the country is not a source of easy asylum or visas into the EU.

It says that in the case of a 'threat of destabilization of the country by migration inflow," a temporary suspension of accepting asylum applications can be introduced on a given territory. The general rules of granting asylum in the EU member country will be toughened to prevent the procedure from serving as a gateway into all of the EU.

In many cases, irregular migrants apply for asylum in Poland, but before their requests are processed, they travel across the EU’s no-visa travel zone to reach Germany or other countries in Western Europe.

The plan, which failed to win support from four left-wing ministers in Tusk's coalition government, still needs approval from parliament and from Duda to become binding. Duda has made it clear he will not back it.

Russian President Vladimir Putin and Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko "are trying to destabilize the situation on our border, in the EU, and your response to this is to deprive people whom Putin and Lukashenko imprison and persecute of a safe haven. It must be some fatal mistake,” Duda said in his emotional speech Wednesday.

Migration and Poland's plan are to be discussed at the upcoming EU summit and on its fringes this week in Brussels.