Фото: reform.news
Poland granted international protection to 24 Belarusian citizens in September. According to a report by the Office for Foreigners, 21 people were granted refugee status and three received subsidiary protection. Another 52 Belarusian citizens were denied international protection, while proceedings in 12 cases were suspended.
In total, the Office for Foreigners processed 88 cases involving Belarusian citizens in September.
Compared with August, the number of positive decisions declined. There were 36 positive decisions that month, while the number of refusals remained at approximately the same level. In July, international protection was granted to only 14 Belarusians, while 82 received negative decisions. In June, 25 people received positive decisions, while 52 were denied international protection.
Since the beginning of the year, the Office for Foreigners has issued decisions in 1,098 cases involving Belarusian asylum seekers. Between January and September, 302 Belarusian citizens were granted refugee status, 380 received subsidiary protection, 266 were denied international protection, and proceedings in 150 cases were discontinued.
As of October 1, the Office was still processing 3,212 cases involving Belarusians, including 2,914 at first instance and 289 at second instance. During September, the number of first-instance cases decreased by 40, while the number of second-instance cases increased by 31. The total number of Belarusian cases under consideration by the Office remained unchanged during September.
As of October 1, 129,830 Belarusian citizens held documents entitling them to reside in Poland. Their number decreased by 1,589 in August, which may be related to the expiration of residence permits and lengthy procedures for processing applications.
As of October 1, Belarusians in Poland held:
In September, the Office for Foreigners issued 1,868 positive decisions on temporary residence permits, 281 on permanent residence permits, and 108 on EU long-term resident status.
In September, the Office refused temporary residence permits to 147 applicants, permanent residence permits to 102, and EU long-term resident status to 17 Belarusian citizens.
Since the beginning of the year, temporary residence permits have been granted to 17,480 Belarusians, permanent residence permits to 2,759, and EU long-term resident status to 810 Belarusian citizens.
This year, the Office has also issued 5,680 Polish travel documents to Belarusian citizens. They can obtain these documents through a simplified procedure when their Belarusian passports expire and they are unable to return to their home country to renew them for various reasons. The Office forecasts that the number of travel documents issued by the end of the year could exceed 7,500.