Mr. Kaczynski said on Saturday, as quoted by Radio Poland: “After recent events connected with acts of terror, [Poland] will not accept refugees because there is no mechanism that would ensure security”.
The European Commission has recently suggested that countries who refuse to host asylum seekers will have to pay 250.000 euros for each asylum-seeker they turn away. The money raised would be given to countries such as Greece and Italy who are currently coping with a disproportionately high number of refugees.
But Poland is also opposing these plans, which would mean that if the country pushes through with its refusal to meet a quota of 6.500 refugees, it would have to pay over 1.6bn euros in support for the humanitarian effort.
“Such a decision would abolish the sovereignty of EU member states – of course, the weaker ones. We don’t agree to that, we have to oppose that, because we are and we will be in charge in our own country” Kaczynski said. “This is the position of the prime minister and the whole of PiS. From the beginning we felt that this issue should be resolved, assisting refugees outside the EU” he added.
Hungary and Slovakia have also lashed out at the European Commission’s proposals.
Recently, tens of thousands of people have taken to the streets in Warsaw to protest against the conservative Polish government for running an undemocratic administration regarding its reforms of judicial, surveillance and media laws.