Polish Border Guard says EU states have filed nearly 6,000 asylum seekers since 2022

The Polish Border Guard reported on Tuesday that the EU states have filed close to 6,500 applications in 2022 to return asylum seekers to Poland.

Under EU regulations, anyone who wants to apply for asylum must apply in the first EU country they have crossed into. People who have moved from one EU country to another can be deported back to the first state they entered.

In 2021, Poland's border with Belarus came under intense pressure from thousands of migrants trying to get into the EU.

The Border Guard said that most of the deportation motions are from Germany, Norway, France, Sweden and Austria and mostly concern asylum seekers from Iraq.

A Border Guard spokeswoman said that a similar fate would await Middle Eastern refugees trying to cross the Polish border from Belarus if they travelled further into the EU.

501 of the 4,500 refugees marked for deportation to Poland from other EU states have already arrived in the country, according to the spokesperson. PAP mb md jchch