Poland Abandons Pledge to Shelter Refugees After Brussels Blasts

[Purveyor]

Source: Bloomberg

By Marek Strzelecki
March 23, 2016 — 11:40 AM EDT

Poland abandoned a pledge to shelter migrants under a European Union relocation agreement, Prime Minister Beata Szydlo said, shifting her country’s stance a day after suicide bombers killed dozens of people in the bloc’s de-facto capital.

Poland’s previous government agreed to host several thousand migrants under a deal forged by the EU’s 28 member states to address the hundreds of thousands of mostly Middle Eastern refugees who have arrived in the bloc since last year. The new government, which has repeatedly clashed with the EU’s executive over rule-of-law and other issues since it took power after October elections, has repeatedly said it must eliminate danger when admitting migrants.

“I will be very clear: at the moment, I don’t see a possibility for migrants to come to Poland,” Szydlo told Superstacja TV on Wednesday. Her spokesman, Rafal Bochenek, later told journalists that the government “can’t allow for events in western Europe to happen in Poland.”

Poland’s about-face is a blow to pledges made last year to shelter a planned 160,000 refugees in the EU and a deal sealed last week to reduce the flow of refugees arriving on member Greece’s shores from Turkey. Under the new agreement, each Syrian refugee who makes it to the Aegean state will be sent back to Turkey and put at the end of a waiting list for entry, while another person on the waiting in a camp there will be admitted to the bloc. Some 857,000 survived the Aegean passage in 2015, and more than 144,000 have crossed so far this year.

Read more: http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-03-23/poland-abandons-pledge-to-shelter-refugees-after-brussels-blasts

[Yuugal]

1. Good for them!

These "refugees" are mostly military age men who should be fighting for their country.

[awoke_in_2003]

2. They won't be the last. nt

[mwrguy]

3. The EU should not allow them to abandon their responsibilities

[Throd]

4. What responsibilities?

[mwrguy]

5. to take in their share of humanitarian refugees.

[branford]

7. Kindly cite the relevant domestic, EU or international law

that mandates Poland take migrants from outside their country who are currently in a safe country?

You might believe Poland should take these people, but they currently are under no legal obligation to do so.

[mwrguy]

8. call it a moral obligation

[branford]

9. You are certainly entitled to believe that distributing migrants

among EU members is a moral imperative. However, it is not the law, and given the current popular trends in the EU, it has virtually no chance of becoming mandatory in the foreseeable future.

Poland is a democracy, and its recently elected conservative government is not about to break their political promises and ignore the clear will of the voters to assist outsiders, no less with demonstrable criminal and security risks.

[ck4829]

10. Indeed, let's also not forget the infamous Bushism of "You forgot Poland"

I guess it's real fun to destabilize other countries and a whole region, not so much fun having to deal with those consequences... including refugees.

[FLPanhandle]

6. The Polish governments first and primary responsibility is to it's own citizens

I can't see how opening the doors for migrants is in the best interests and safety of the Polish population.

[840high]

11. Looking out for the safety

of your people and country is a good things. Good for Poland.

[ck4829]

12. So... all good to be part of the effort to destabilize the region, but don't want to deal with the

refugees of said destabilization?

Should just come out and say that. Let's just be honest, Poland.

[Odin2005]

13. The EU is dead.

It died because it's member states preferred to dump the problem on other member states rather than developing a common EU immigration and refugee policy.