Residents near the Polish city of Ustroń are collecting signatures demanding to relocate a refugee center from their territory. The petition has already been supported by 600 people.
Currently, about 80 people live in the center. In general, they are Ukrainians and Kazakhs. But local residents are fear of the arrival of refugees from Syria. “Our town is too small to bring refugees here, so people are just afraid”, – they pointed out during a meeting with the town authorities.
A spokeswoman for the Office for Foreigners in Poland Eva Pehota assured that refugees from Syria won’t be housed in Ustroń. According to her, the arrival of migrants from Arab countries to the republic is still under a question mark. “Until the end of 2016 year we can get a maximum of 400 people. So far, there are only 100 requests concerning persons who may be deployed in Poland”, -she said, stressing that all the refugees will be thoroughly tested on their safety.
Within the framework of the European resettlement program, during two years Poland undertook to adopt 7000 refugees on its territory. Currently the Polish authorities have declared readiness to host only 400 people in 2016.