Poland: government drops penalties for helping migrants after outcry
The interior ministry wanted to punish facilitating illegal stay with up to three years in prison, even without profit motive. After criticism from 61 organisations, the plan is off the table.
Symbolic image · Photo: Vedenei / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0 (cropped and resized)
Poland's interior ministry on Friday withdrew a controversial proposal that would have criminalised helping migrants without the right to stay. As Notes from Poland reported, knowingly enabling or facilitating someone's illegal stay in Poland would have become a crime even without financial or personal benefit. The penalty was to be up to three years in prison. Currently, up to five years applies only when someone seeks a benefit.
Activists feared that humanitarian aid such as food, water, medical care or shelter for people who crossed the border from Belarus would be criminalised. 61 organisations, including Amnesty International, the Helsinki Foundation for Human Rights and the Auschwitz-Birkenau Foundation, said the plans violated international standards binding on Poland. Human rights commissioner Sylwia Gregorczyk-Abram and family minister Agnieszka Dziemianowicz-Bąk of the junior coalition partner Lewica also objected.
The ministry said it was withdrawing the draft "to eliminate any doubts" and prevent misinterpretation, adding that its aim had been to target the organisers of smuggling. According to Notes from Poland, attempted illegal crossings from Belarus fell from about 15,500 in the first half of 2025 to fewer than 250 in the first half of 2026. More than 100 migrants have died around the border since 2021.