Poland vows not to accept a single migrant under EU scheme as bloc’s pact ripped apart | World | News

Poland vowed to not accept a single migrant under the European Union‘s controversial new migrant scheme, leaving Brussels’ plan in pieces.

Donald Tusk, the Polish leader, said his government “will not accept any forced mechanism [to relocate asylum seekers]”, adding that he wanted to assure citizens Warsaw “will not accept illegal migrants under any such mechanism”.

In a speech on Wednesday, the prime minister added: “We will not accept a single migrant… Poland will never be part of such a mechanism.”

The EU’s migration plan has enraged many in Poland.

The issue was high on the agenda of the country’s former government – the Law and Justice party (PiS) which was sensationally ousted last month – and its replacement in power, led by Mr Tusk, has continued Poland’s opposition to it.

The plan includes a rule that means member states will either receive relocated asylum seekers from countries on the frontline of the crisis or make “solidarity payments”.

The PiS has accused Mr Tusk and his administration – known to heavily in favour of the European Union and being a more liberal outfit – of being willing to accept the new rules handed out by Brussels.

It added that the pact was itself provisionally approved by member states of the EU just a week after Mr Tusk’s government took power.

The plans will now undergo another round of talks before it will seek final approval by the European Council.

Mr Tusk was the chief of the Council between 2014 and 2019 – during which time the EU began a new system designed to redistribute asylum seekers to other member states.

However this plan was ditched in 2017. Among its reasons was Poland and Hungary’s refusal to take any of its quota of asylum seekers.

Along with the Czech Republic, the three countries were found to have breached EU law by refusing to comply with the system.

Mr Tusk said “when it comes to forced relocation, for years when I was the head of the European Council I was definitely against the so-called ‘forced solidarity'”.

He added: “It was, among other reasons, because I was head of the European Council that this mechanism was never implemented.”

Mr Tusk concluded yesterday that “hundreds of thousands of migrants were let in [to the bloc], including through a corrupt mechanism.

“The end of the era of PiS and Kaczyński’s rule also means much greater security when it comes to the uncontrolled inflow of migrants.”