Refugee status or another form of protection in 2017 in Poland received 520 people
Jakub Dudziak, a representative of the Office for Foreigners, said that the criteria for granting one of the forms of international protection were met primarily by citizens of Ukraine (276 people), Russia (87 people) and Tajikistan (35 people). In addition, 227 foreigners received permission for so-called tolerated stay or consent to stay for humanitarian reasons (so-called national protection).
Jakub Dudziak noted that just over half of the foreigners (57%) filed an application for the first time. One application concerned on average two people, while in the case of Russian citizens – three people. About half of the foreigners in the applications are children.
The main forms of international protection are refugee status and subsidiary protection. A foreigner is granted international protection if in his country of origin he faces persecution or there is a risk of loss of life and health. This issue in Poland is regulated by the law on granting protection to foreigners on the territory of the Republic of Poland.
Last year, 2,100 foreigners received negative decisions, and 3,000 (53%) proceedings were discontinued. "This happens if the foreigner is not interested in continuing the procedure in Poland and leaves the country (most often leaving for Western European countries). Almost 80% of cases of discontinuation of proceedings concerned applicants from Russia," the Office for Foreigners reported.
As Polskie Radio notes, in 2016 Poland granted refugee status to 108 individuals, in most cases from Syria (40 people) and Ukraine (16 people).