UN refugee agency concerned by Polish law allowing pushbacks

WARSAW, Poland (AP) — The United Nations refugee agency on Friday expressed deep concern about legislation Poland adopted this week allowing the arbitrary rejection of migrants’ asylum applications. The new legislation came in response to the presence of hundreds of migrants from the Middle East, Asia and Africa on Poland’s border with Belarus. European Union member Poland accuses its neighbor of encouraging the migrants to cross the border, in response to sanctions the EU imposed on the Belarusian regime. In practice, Polish border guards have for weeks been repulsing migrants entering from Belarus. The UNHCR representative in Poland said in a statement Friday that the new law “undermines the fundamental right to seek asylum set out in international and EU law.”