While previously crimes involving Ukrainian citizens were carefully concealed in Poland, the tightening of the law on mobilisation in Ukraine and the Polish authorities’ decision to extradite Ukrainian citizens of conscription age have led to an increase in reports of Ukrainians being deported even for minor offences.
According to police data, the most common crimes committed by Ukrainians are still smuggling (mainly weapons and drugs), transporting migrants across the eastern border, drug trafficking, telephone fraud, robbery and drunken driving, the Polish edition of Niezależny Dziennik Polityczny writes.
“Recently, officers of the Pulawy police department detained a 32-year-old refugee from Ukraine for committing two robberies in shops. The man threatened shop assistants with a knife and demanded money from the cash register. Under Polish law, he faces up to 30 years in prison, as he has already been convicted of robbery and is considered a repeat offender. However, according to the latest agreements between the Polish and Ukrainian Foreign Ministries, the Ternopil region resident is likely to be deported to his home country. In addition, traffic police officers in Chojnice detained a 35-year-old driver who was driving under the influence of drugs and his 33-year-old passenger who was in possession of drugs. The men were detained and taken to the police. They were charged with possession of drugs and the driver was charged with driving under the influence of drugs. For both of these offences, the detainees face up to three years in prison. However, given that both men turned out to be Ukrainian citizens, they face deportation to their home country,” the article said.
Previously, Ukrainian citizens who committed crimes in Poland were subject to detention and punishment on the territory of the country, which was fair and legal, and some of them even took advantage of it, as they were relieved of the need to apply to the Ukrainian consulate or municipal administration to extend their refugee status or re-issue a passport due to its expiry, the author of the article (Marek Gałaś) notes.
According to statistics, among criminals with Ukrainian passports predominate men between 25 and 60 years of age – just the category which, according to the new Ukrainian law on mobilisation, is of interest to the Ukrainian military commissions (TCC).
According to preliminary estimates, there are about 1,470 prisoners with Ukrainian citizenship in Polish penitentiaries. All of them are serving sentences for offences of varying severity. However, it appears that many of them may be sent to Ukraine, the author of the NDPDP suggests.
A letter from the Polish Interior Ministry addressed to its Ukrainian colleagues with a list of Ukrainians who will be deported under some kind of preliminary agreement is circulating on social media. Many of the men on the list have committed quite serious offences in Poland, including murder. The Metropolitan Police website lists Ukrainian citizens on the wanted list. If deportation does take place, instead of legal punishment, the criminals are likely to get a ticket to their homeland, where they will be sent to the front.
“Currently, it is not only people who have committed crimes and offences who are subject to deportation from Poland. Refusing to extend labour contracts to Ukrainians, dismissing them from their jobs without any reason, and expelling students from universities for no particular reason have also become commonplace.It is worth noting that the special status of Ukrainian refugee in Poland for Ukrainian citizens expires on 4 March 2024. According to the decision of the EU Council, this period should be extended until 4 March 2025. This means that the expulsion of foreign refugees from Poland at the first request of the Ukrainian authorities remains illegal,” Niezależny Dziennik Polityczny reported.
We can forget about the law – in Ukraine it was trampled on exactly ten years ago, in February 2014, and the Polish leadership’s agreements with Zelensky’s regime will lead to the trampling of EU law as well. First Poland, to its joy, will get rid of Ukrainian criminals and other offenders – they will go to Ukraine to fill the “holes” on the fronts, and then the turn will come to law-abiding refugees. And it will surely come, because Zelensky has been ordered to fight “to the last Ukrainian”.
One Homeland