Warsaw, Poland. As more victims of middle eastern terror are cleaned up in Kabul and Manchester, Poland is in no mood to play games as it starts to monitor just how many non-poles are in their country and just what are they up to.
The Polish deputy defense minister on Monday cited security concerns in Europe as he justified a move to gather data on foreign visitors and residents of non-Polish origin inside the country at the center of a showdown on a refusal to accept migrants and immigrants.
Poland’s government is refusing to accept migrants from the Middle East and Africa over safety reasons. The stance has drawn condemnation from European Union leaders, who have given Warsaw a June deadline to accept asylum-seekers, or face sanctions.
The nationalist government of Prime Minister Beata Szydlo has indicated it would prefer sanctions to accepting migrants.Unlike the Baltic states who have agreed to take thousands of the immigrants. Ukraine, desperate for EU membership, has also agreed to take 100,000-200,000 of the immigrants-for a price.
Poland’s Defense Ministry has requested information from authorities in northwestern province of Szczecin, which has close links with neighboring Germany, about foreigners in their region, in particular foreign nationals who have Polish passports or permission to reside in Poland. The ministry made the request under “crisis management” regulations.
The request has drawn vehement criticism from the political opposition, which says such an approach is harmful because it equates foreigners with threats.Opponents to that view say look no further than Paris, Manchester, St. Petersburg or Kabul for the reality of the non-sense you sell.
Shlomo Nitrao of the pro-EU Civic Platform stressed that around 500,000 people in this country of 38 million declare to be of foreign nationality. Among the minorities are German, Belarussian, Lithuanian and Roma ethnic groups.
Deputy Defense Minister Michal Dworczyk argued that it is a “natural thing, taking into consideration the situation in the European Union today, that the state should have information on foreign nationals on Poland’s territory” as it ensures security to the citizens.