Shortly after President Andrzej Duda signed into law restrictions on submitting applications for international protection, the Council of Ministers published a corresponding regulation in the Journal of Laws. In this brief document, it is stated outright that the limitation “applies at the state border with the Republic of Belarus.” What does that mean in practice?
The regulation on the temporary restriction of the right to apply for international protection appeared in the Journal of Laws on Thursday and will be in effect for 60 days. Its duration may be extended once more—by no more than another 60 days—provided the Sejm gives its consent. Despite these restrictions, the Border Guard will still accept applications for international protection from unaccompanied minors, pregnant women, and individuals who may require special treatment, especially due to their age or health condition.
As X user Dariusz Goliński points out, the regulation’s wording may prove to be a legal flop.
The crux of the issue is that the restriction “applies at the state border with the Republic of Belarus.”
Under the Act on the Protection of the State Border, “the border of the Republic of Poland, hereinafter referred to as the ‘state border,’ is the vertical plane passing through the boundary line that separates the territory of the Polish state from the territories of other states and from the high seas. The state border also delineates the airspace, waters, and the earth’s interior.”
In other words, we are talking about a “thin” border—narrower than a human foot—between the two countries.
In practice, the restriction on submitting an application for international protection should extend across the border zone area. Only then would it provide Polish officers guarding the Polish-Belarusian border with clear guidelines for enforcement.
Is this regulation truly a dud? That is the question posed by Dariusz Goliński.