POLAND: New Immigration Policies & more – 24th Oct 2024

Witam from BA! This is the Rorshok Poland Update from the 24th of October twenty twenty-four. A quick summary of what's going down in Poland.

Last week, we said that the government announced its new migration policy and suspended the right to seek asylum for immigrants coming from Asia and the Middle East through Belarus. The government also will tighten visa procedures for foreigners.

On Friday, the 18th, the government said they would develop return programs for immigrants in Poland to return to their country. Also, immigrants under protection will have to attend mandatory integration programs to get used to the Polish way of living. Moreover, foreign nationals wishing to work in Poland will need to hold citizenship from a country that is a member of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, or one that has a readmission agreement with Poland or the EU.

On the same day, the European Council expressed its support for Poland, while the European Commission, the union’s executive branch, said that Poland’s suspension of asylum rights breached international and EU laws. The Polish government said it had been spending one billion dollars a year to prevent immigrants from entering from Belarus.

On other foreign affairs news, on Tuesday, the 22nd, the government decided to close down the Russian embassy in Poznan, a city in the west of Poland, and expel the diplomats from the country. Now, Poland has only one Russian embassy in the capital, Warsaw. The decision follows a court ruling saying that the Russian intelligence service was responsible for the recent fires in the country. Several fires broke out this year in Warsaw, including at a market and a bus station. The public had already suspected that Russia was involved.

Maria Zakharova, the Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman, said that Poland's decision was another hostile step towards Russia and threatened with a painful response.

On a related note, on Wednesday, the 23rd, Polish authorities revealed how the Russian intelligence service is finding people to cause fires in Poland. Russian spies are targeting pro-Russian Ukrainians or Poles through Telegram and offering them money.

Authorities revealed this information after they detained a fifty-one-year-old Ukrainian who intended to set fire to a paint factory near a fuel depot that stores fifty-six million liters of fuel. He said that a Telegram user offered him $2,000 dollars upfront, with another $2,000 promised after the successful operation. On the same day, authorities detained another Ukrainian man who served Russian spies.

Poland's relations with Germany are also tense. Last week, Germany hosted an official meeting with US President Joe Biden, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, French President Emmanuel Macron, and British Prime Minister Keir Starmer. Western countries usually invite Poland, as some see the nation as Ukraine’s strongest ally.

On Tuesday, the 22nd, Radosław Sikorski, the Polish foreign minister, said that the EU countries and Ukraine should’ve invited Poland because the country always looks out for Ukraine’s best interest. Sikorski said that the German opposition had already criticized the German government for not inviting Poland, and he said that he hoped this would give Germany something to think about. Relations between Germany and Poland have worsened as Germany decided to endorse border controls on Poland to prevent illegal immigration in the last month.

Next up, some energy updates. On Thursday, the 17th, Prime Minister Donald Tusk announced that the country would build offshore wind turbines in the Baltic Sea to boost the country’s green energy production. Currently, Poland relies on coal to produce sixty percent of its electricity needs. Still, the country wants to decrease its reliance on coal - as it harms the environment - and also import less energy from other countries.

Tusk said that Poland would spend eighteen billion dollars in the next decade on energy projects, including the construction of the country’s first nuclear plant in twenty thirty-two. He added that the government would also upgrade its existing wind turbines, which will boost their energy output by at least 400 percent. Energy sector workers, such as mine workers, are worried because the gradual transition to green energy resources might leave them without jobs in the near future.

While some things decrease, others go up. Tobacco addiction is increasing in the country. To tackle this problem, on Saturday, the 18th, the parliament decided to gradually raise taxes on tobacco products and electronic smoking devices. According to the new policy, the tax on cigarettes will increase by twenty-five percent in the next year, twenty percent in twenty twenty-six, and fifteen percent in twenty twenty-seven. The tax hikes will also apply to loose tobacco, with increases of thirty-eight percent in twenty twenty-five, thirty percent in twenty twenty-six, and twenty-two percent in twenty twenty-seven. A similar pattern will be followed for cigars and cigarillos.

The government will also apply a sharp increase of seventy-five percent for e-cigarettes next year. President Duda also has to sign the bill to implement the new plan.

Some other policies stay the same as the abortion law hasn’t changed. On Thursday, the 17th, the District Court in Szczecin started the trial against Dr. Maria Kubisa, a gynecologist accused of helping women get abortions in twenty twenty-three. Previously, authorities raided the house of Dr. Kubisa and accused her of giving abortion drugs to six women.

According to Polish law, abortion is illegal. Deutsche Welle, the German newspaper, wrote that Polish prosecutors are also investigating two more doctors from Germany who allegedly also helped other Polish women to have abortions.

The start of the trial sparked a protest in the garden of the court. Several women gathered to show support for Dr. Kubisa and demanded that the government legalize abortion. Two months ago, the new parliament rejected Prime Minister Tusk’s proposal to legalize abortion for up to the 12th pregnancy week.

In unrelated news, on Wednesday, the 23rd, a poll by Rzeczpospolita Daily showed that Poles wouldn’t trust their army to defend the country if a war with Russia broke out. Fifty-four percent of the participants said that the Polish military was neither capable nor ready to defend the country against Russia.

Rzeczpospolita stated that the main reason for the fear is that people think Ukraine is not defending its territory well, although it has a higher population than Poland and a lot of Western arms supplies. The poll showed that the second reason was the possibility of Trump returning to the presidency in the US, which won’t help Poland and other allies enough in case of a Russian invasion.

And to wrap up this edition, some more statistics. On Wednesday, the 23rd, the Polish Smog Alarm ranked Polish cities in terms of polluted air. According to the results, Nowa Ruda in Lower Silesia is the most polluted city. Sucha Beskidzka, located in the southern Małopolska region, ranked 2nd and Nowy Targ 3rd. When it comes to cities with cleaner air, the institution reported that the Lubusz and West Pomeranian regions, in the western and northwestern parts of the country, have taken the lead.

Aaand that’s it for this week! Thank you for joining us!

Thanks for tuning into the Rorshok Poland update. You can connect with us on social media as @rorshokpoland on Twitter and Instagram.

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