Poland has traditionally sympathized with Chechnya in its fight against Russia for independence. Warsaw named one of its roundabouts after the Chechen President Dzhokhar Dudayev in 2005. Upon Poland’s accession to the EU on 1st May 2004, it became Europe’s “green line”, the border country with non-European Eastern countries. During the last 12 months, the number of refugees applying for asylum in Poland amounted to nearly 10,000 – 95 % of which come from the Russian Federation, or to be more precise from Chechnya.
According to the report of the Office for Repatriation and Aliens, 300 Chechen refugees filed for political asylum in Poland in the first week of October 2005 alone. In 15 centres for refugees in the country, about 3,500 Chechens are awaiting official recognition of refugee status, and every year Poland has spent 10 million Euros out of its own budget to provide for their stay.
They come to Poland principally through the Polish – Belarus border, at Terespol, 215 km from Warsaw. At the control point, the word “refugee” says it all. The border guards take their picture, their fingerprints and take away their passports. Then the refugees must fill in applications for the status of refugee and are sent to centres, where they are to wait for the official decision. They will stay there for a few months or even a few years – if they make an appeal against negative decisions.
They dream of being granted refugee status for at least two reasons. Firstly, during the first year of the refugee integration programme they will an allocation of about 250 Euro per month receive from the Polish government. The second reason is the “blue passport”, the Geneva Travel Document, which allows refugees to travel to all countries of the world except their country of origin. In the last 10 months, 245 Chechens were issued with such documents, which represent less than 3 % of those having applied for asylum.
The rest were given negative decisions (more of 1900 Chechens) or granted temporary (and extendable) residence permits allowing them to stay legally in Poland for a period of 12 months (the case of around 1,400 Chechens in the last 10 months). 3800 Chechens have left the country. Few have succeeded in assimilating, the rest try to escape through the “green border” to Austria, Germany, Belgium or France. However, according to European legislation, the consideration of the application for refugee status remains the obligation of the country where the refugee first arrived. Thus, most of those who left will have to return to Poland and start a new life in a new, not-so-wealthy country, with very small chances of finding employment (Poland as an official rate of unemployment of 17 %). The fact that many Poles are in a similarly difficult situation will not be of much help.
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