Poland downplays reports Germany sent back 40,000 irregular migrants under Dublin agreement

By Jo Harper

WARSAW (AA) – The Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Warsaw on Monday downplayed local media reports that Berlin had sent back 40,000 irregular migrants who had entered Germany by crossing Poland’s border.

Pawel Wronski, the ministry's spokesman, brushed aside the media reports, saying, "There are no such concerns here."

Polish online media platform Interia recently reported that Germany is using the Dublin Regulation, an agreement on irregular migrants seeking asylum in the EU, to send back about 40,000 people to Poland, the majority of whom entered the country by crossing the border with Belarus.

The Dublin procedure stipulates that if an asylum application is filed in Poland and the irregular migrant leaves for another country before their case is considered, they can be sent back to Poland.

“No mechanisms have ever been fully utilized. I know that information has a life of its own, but we are not facing a flood of migrants sent to us by Germany,” Wronski said.

The issue of irregular migration has become a source of contention in Polish-German relations, with Warsaw outraged by Berlin's proposals to suspend the Schengen Agreement. Berlin expresses dismay over Warsaw's proposals to suspend asylum rights for irregular migrants crossing from Belarus into Poland.

Since 2021, Belarus and Russia have allegedly sent a large number of irregular migrants, primarily from the Middle East and Africa, across the EU's border into Poland, many of whom have made their way to Germany.