Poland prepares mission to process refugees

Poland is preparing a mission to Lebanon in order to process candidates due to be given asylum in Poland as part of an EU-led programme.

Deputy Interior Minister Piotr Stachańczyk has said that “the refugees will reach Poland in stages, in groups of between 100 and 200 people.”

Some 2,000 refugees are ultimately due to be given asylum in Poland, taking in 900 from camps outside the EU, and 1,100 from camps in Italy and Greece. In total, the EU hopes to resettle 60,000 refugees across Europe.

The mission to Lebanon concerns 900 Syrians who have fled the ongoing civil war in their homeland.

The candidates will be chosen at camps run by UNHCR, the UN’s refugee agency.

“One should bear in mind that they will come to our country if they agree to do so,” Deputy Minister Stachańczyk said.

“It is a voluntary process.”

The 1,100 refugees due in Poland from camps in Italy and Greece will be Syrian and Eritrean citizens.

The first groups are to arrive in 2016.

As noted by Stachańczyk, all of those ultimately given asylum in Poland will take part in intregrational programmes, in two phases.
They will intially reside in centres belonging to Poland’s Office for Foreigners. Language courses and vocational training will be parts of the integrational programmes.