Poland launches campaign in African and Asian countries warning against illegal migration

Poland has launched a campaign in seven African and Asia countries warning potential migrants not to believe claims by people smugglers and Belarus that they can help them enter the European Union across the Polish border.

The initiative, first announced in April , was launched today in Afghanistan, Ethiopia, Eritrea, Somalia, Iraq, Pakistan and Egypt, countries from which Poland has identified the largest numbers of people trying to illegally cross the border from Belarus.

“Those who promised you a thriving life in Europe are lying,” says a video aimed at potential migrants and shared on social media by Polish foreign minister Radosław Sikorski. “The Polish-Belarusian border is not a gate to Europe.”

“The Polish border is protected by tall walls, full of modernized mechanical devices and thousand[s] [of] soldiers,” continues the message. “Poland currently strengthens its refugee law…If someone illegally crosses the border, they will not receive asylum.”

In March, Poland introduced a new law suspending the right to claim asylum by migrants who enter the country from Belarus. It has also strengthened physical barriers and electronic monitoring at the border, as well as introducing an exclusion zone intended to keep people smugglers away.

Announcing the new initiative, Prime Minister Donald Tusk's office said that it is a “response to the cooperation of smugglers and the state apparatuses of Russia and Belarus, the effects of which are the enormous migration pressure on our eastern border and the tragedies of thousands of people brought by regimes hostile to Poland.”

The information campaign will be conducted on social media and in public spaces in the seven countries, translated into local languages.

Since 2021, tens of thousands of migrants and asylum seekers – mainly from Asia and Africa – have tried to enter Poland with the encouragement and assistance of the Belarusian authorities .

In response, both Poland's previous Law and Justice (PiS) government, which ruled until the end of 2023, and Tusk's current administration have introduced tough measures seeking to prevent crossings.

Human rights groups – including the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees and Council of Europe's Human Rights Commissioner – have criticized many of the measures taken by Poland, in particular the practice of “pushing back” migrants over the border into Belarus.

They note that well over 100 people are reported to have died around the border since the beginning of the crisis, often after being forced back and cross it by the Polish and Belarusian authorities.

However, Warsaw has received backing for its tough approach from its European partners. Last month, the EU's commissioner for internal affairs and migration, Magnus Brunner, visited the Polish-Belarusian border alongside Poland's interior minister Tomasz Siemoniak.

Brunner declared that Poland's decision to suspend asylum claims is “correct under EU law” and praised the country for protecting the EU's eastern frontier from “weaponised” migration, calling it “Europe's first line of defense”.