Фото: Reform.news
Poland’s Office for Foreigners has published migration statistics for the first quarter of this year.
According to the data, in January–March Belarusian citizens submitted 405 applications for international protection concerning 507 people (other reports by the office cite 506 people). In total, the office received 1,306 applications concerning 1,646 people.
In the first quarter, the Office for Foreigners granted refugee status to 30 Belarusian citizens, while 342 people received subsidiary protection. The office also issued nine refusals of international protection, and proceedings concerning 61 people were discontinued.
Overall, during the quarter the office granted refugee status to 56 foreign nationals and subsidiary protection to 425 foreigners. Decisions refusing international protection were issued in respect of 1,333 people, while 632 cases were discontinued. The highest number of refusals (1,069) concerned Ukrainian citizens.
As of April 1, the Office for Foreigners was considering 8,200 cases related to international protection. It was handling 2,868 cases involving Belarusian citizens at the first instance and 92 cases at the second instance.
The office noted that the workload is stabilising after a record year in 2024, when more than 17,000 applications were submitted. In the first quarter, the number of decisions taken exceeded the number of applications received.
The average processing time for an international protection case is 277 days, or about nine months.