Polish Cabinet to discuss plans to suspend right to asylum

The Polish Cabinet is to discuss a temporary suspension of the right to asylum, along with a strategy for controlling irregular migration, during its meeting on Tuesday.

On Saturday, Prime Minister Donald Tusk announced to a gathering of his ruling Civic Coalition that he intended to suspend the right to asylum at least temporarily.

"The state must regain 100% control over who enters Poland," he said, adding that he would push for recognition of this decision in the European Union. He did not provide details of any new measures.

In Brussels, an EU Commission spokeswoman noted that member states were obliged under common rules to offer access to asylum procedures to those seeking protection.

Poland and the EU accuse Russian President Vladimir Putin and his ally, Belarusian strongman Alexander Lukashenko, of deliberately directing migrants from crisis regions to Poland's eastern border with Belarus.

The border is simultaneously the EU's external border.