{"id":784,"date":"2017-04-21T12:50:11","date_gmt":"2017-04-21T12:50:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/europeandrussiablog\/?p=784"},"modified":"2017-04-21T12:50:11","modified_gmt":"2017-04-21T12:50:11","slug":"poland-follows-hungarys-footsteps-in-corralling-migrants","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/europeandrussiablog\/2017\/04\/21\/poland-follows-hungarys-footsteps-in-corralling-migrants\/","title":{"rendered":"Poland follows Hungary\u2019s footsteps in corralling migrants"},"content":{"rendered":"

(POLITICO):\u00a0<\/strong>Poland is mulling\u00a0setting up special camps where asylum seekers would be housed in containers and kept behind fences in the event of another migration crisis, according to the country\u2019s interior minister.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s a very similar approach to one adopted by Hungary, which has come under fire from the EU for its harsh approach to asylum seekers. The camps\u00a0are\u00a0part of an overhaul of the asylum system to restrict migration planned by the country\u2019s Law and Justice party (PiS) government. It\u00a0would allow border guards to detain asylum seekers for up to 28 days along the border while their applications are processed, \u201cwhich will prevent efforts to illegally move to Western Europe.\u201d<\/p>\n

A second initiative\u00a0sets the rules for temporary migrant camps, including regulations allowing them to be housed in converted shipping containers, \u201cin the event of a mass inflow of foreigners onto the territory of the Republic of Poland.\u201d The idea is popular politically. A recent survey by the CBOS organization found that 74 percent of Poles don\u2019t want migrants from Africa or the Middle East in their country \u2014 among supporters of Law and Justice the figure was almost 90 percent.<\/p>\n

NGOs and human rights groups are less impressed. Marta G\u00f3rczy\u0144ska from the Helsinki Foundation said the planned changes in the asylum law were \u201cconcerning\u201d because they could lead to \u201ca systematic violation of rights of asylum seekers enshrined in the Geneva Convention of 1951 and EU law on asylum.\u201d The foundation fears toughening up border procedures could see asylum seekers being detained.<\/p>\n

In March, Hungary decided that\u00a0asylum seekers would be held in detention camps and housed in converted shipping containers. Hungary, a close ideological ally of Poland\u2019s right-wing government, has been on the forefront of taking a tough approach to migrants and asylum seekers. The country bore the brunt\u00a0of the 2015 migration crisis\u00a0when hundreds of thousands of people passed through the Balkans on their way to Germany and Western Europe.<\/p>\n

Although Poland wasn\u2019t on the migration route, that didn\u2019t stop PiS\u00a0leader Jaros\u0142aw Kaczy\u0144ski from speaking out on migration, saying during the 2015 election campaign that\u00a0migrants carry \u201cparasites\u201d and \u201cvery dangerous diseases long absent from Europe.\u201d After winning the election, PiS pulled out of an agreement the previous government had made to relocate some 7,000 asylum seekers\u00a0to Poland.\u00a0Like Hungary and Austria, Poland has to date relocated no\u00a0refugees through the EU\u2019s refugee scheme, though Vienna recently announced a change of policy.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

(POLITICO):\u00a0Poland is mulling\u00a0setting up special camps where asylum seekers would be housed in containers and kept behind fences in the event of another migration crisis, according to the country\u2019s interior minister. It\u2019s a very similar approach to one adopted by Hungary, which has come under fire from the EU for its harsh approach to asylum seekers. The camps\u00a0are\u00a0part of an… Read more »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[30,29,17,31],"class_list":["post-784","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-article","tag-asylum","tag-hungary","tag-poland","tag-refugees"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/europeandrussiablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/784","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/europeandrussiablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/europeandrussiablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/europeandrussiablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/europeandrussiablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=784"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/europeandrussiablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/784\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":785,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/europeandrussiablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/784\/revisions\/785"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/europeandrussiablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=784"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/europeandrussiablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=784"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/europeandrussiablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=784"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}