Poland refuses to accept refugees after Paris attacks

“The attacks mean there’s a need for an even deeper revision of the European policy regarding the migrant crisis”.

In a comment on the right-leaning news portal wPolityce.pl, Konrad Szymanski said his incoming government did not agree with the previous Polish administration’s commitment to accept a share of an EU-wide relocation of immigrants.

Szymanski, who is to take the European affairs portfolio in conservative Prime Minister-designate Beata Szydlo’s new government, said yesterday’s attacks in Paris were directly connected, both to the migrant crisis, as well as French involvement in air strikes on Islamic State positions.

But the ad hoc system that has developed, in recent months, with the southern European Union states allowing the refugees free passage to travel onward, may be under new threat as the governments controlling the points of entry reconsider their roles. A user named Lukasz angrily told Leicht that “believe me, we don’t need your medals”, with a user named Artur adding that the HRW official should “wipe ignorance off your face and get on with the human rights of the rightful citizens of European Union”. “Poland must retain complete control of its borders, as well as its asylum and migration policy”, Szymanski insisted on the site.

Witold Waszczykowski, Poland’s rising foreign minister, voiced his concerns as well, saying Europe needed to “approach in a different fashion the Muslim community living in Europe which hates this continent and wishes to destroy it”.

Under the EU relocation plan, 160,000 refugees registered in the frontline states of Greece and Italy were to be relocated around the 28-member bloc but there has been fierce resistance from several eastern European countries.

“A user named Joanna offered a more measured reply: “@LotteLeicht1 please do not forget that we are also human too, and also have our rights, and here is our home, refugees are only visitors”.

Under the plan, Poland was to take in 4,500 refugees, adding to a few 2,000 it had already accepted. In fact, IS claimed responsibility for the attacks, threatening more to come.