Speaking during a visit to Romania on Thursday, Sikorski said that Moscow and Minsk are recruiting migrants from the Middle East, transporting them to Belarus, and pushing them toward EU member states.
The aim, he said, is to stoke fear and strengthen far-right parties across Europe—undermining the EU through political disruption.
“They want to blow up the European Union from the inside using fear,” Sikorski told reporters. “We will not tolerate this.”
The minister noted a sharp rise in attempted illegal crossings at the Polish-Belarusian border, reaching several hundred per day.
However, he added that Polish Border Guard data shows 98 percent of these attempts fail.
Sikorski’s remarks came on the same day that a controversial change to Polish asylum law came into force.
The amendment, signed into law on Wednesday by President Andrzej Duda, allows for temporary, geographically limited suspensions of the right to apply for international protection.
According to the new rules, people arriving at a designated section of the Polish-Belarusian border will be unable to apply for asylum there for 60 days.
Instead, applications can be submitted at Polish consulates in Moscow or Minsk – the places from which, Sikorski said, Russian and Belarusian authorities “lured” the migrants in the first place.
Exceptions will be made for vulnerable individuals, including unaccompanied minors, pregnant women, and people requiring special care due to age or health.
The Border Guard may also admit others if there is clear evidence they face serious harm in their country of origin.
Sikorski defended the measures as necessary in the face of what he described as a deliberately planned operation by Russian and Belarusian regimes.
He argued that asylum law was designed for consideration by individual case, not mass-scale attempts orchestrated by hostile governments.
He stressed that the goal is to send a clear message to potential migrants and their families: crossing into the EU via Belarus is dangerous and unlikely to succeed.
Prime Minister Donald Tusk said the rules will remain in place as long as needed.
Earlier this week, Tusk urged President Duda to approve the legislation, arguing that the possibility of immediately applying for asylum after crossing the border illegally has become one of the biggest incentives for smuggling operations.
Tusk described the law as a tool to “effectively discourage people from organizing this smuggling.”
The law has drawn criticism from civil society groups involved in helping migrants.
Last week, several organizations appealed to the president to veto the legislation, claiming it violates Poland’s constitution, which guarantees foreigners the right to seek asylum, and breaches international commitments, including the 1951 Refugee Convention.
Under the amended law, the 60-day restriction can be extended once, for another 60 days, with the approval of the Polish parliament.
The government will determine which specific border sections the restriction applies to.
Poland’s eastern border has become a flashpoint since 2021, when Belarus began encouraging migrants from the Middle East and Africa to attempt entry into the EU in what officials in Warsaw and Brussels have described as a form of hybrid warfare.
(rt/gs)
Source: IAR, PAP