Poland's government said on Tuesday it would join a growing list of EU countries to shun a U.N. migration pact.
Polish government has decided Poland will not support the Global Compact for Safe, Orderly and Regular Migration, both at the international conference scheduled for 10 and 11 December in Marrakesh and during the vote at the U.N. General Assembly that will follow.
The statement issued by the Government Information Centre reads "the document did not fulfil Poland's requirements regarding appropriately strong guarantees of the right of a sovereign state to decide who to let in on its territory, as well as of distinguishing between legal and illegal migration".
Furthermore, it was indicated that "provisions included in the final draft of the document, especially those regarding distinguishing between legal and illegal migrants, may cause significant difficulties in interpretation and implementation of the agreement".
The Global Compact for Safe, Orderly and Regular Migration was approved in July by all 193 member UN nations except the United States, which backed out last year. It followed the biggest influx of migrants into Europe since World War Two, many fleeing conflicts and poverty in the Middle East, Africa and beyond.
Drafted following the biggest influx of migrants into Europe since World War Two, most fleeing war or poverty in the Middle East and Africa, the non-binding pact is due to be adopted next month by heads of government at a meeting in Morocco.
Poland said it would not be endorsing the document.
"(It) doesn't meet Polish demands regarding strong guarantees for countries to have the right to independently decide (who) they choose to accept," the government in Warsaw said in a statement.
Poland's ruling Law and Justice party (PiS) has maintained strong anti-migrant rhetoric since it took office in 2015, and Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki indicated earlier this month he was likely to reject the pact.
An estimated one million Ukrainian migrants live and work in Poland.
Hungary, Czech Republic and Bulgaria have already rejected the pact, and Austria has said it does not plan to adopt it either.
In Bratislava, Slovakia's Prime Minister Peter Pellegrini said he was concerned his country might be required to take in more migrants than it wanted to.
"Our red lines are obligations that would limit our sovereignty to decide about accepting migrants," he told reporters after a government meeting.
His foreign minister, who oversaw the drafting of the pact last year while serving as President of the U.N. General Assembly, threatened to quit the government if Slovakia rejected it.
Miroslav Lajcak said the issue was "being hijacked by populists, xenophobes and nationalists," and if Pellegrini's leftist ruling Smer party did not trust him, "I can't be the minister of foreign affairs."
Autor: gf / Źródło: TVN24 International, PAP, Reuters
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