Anti-immigrant rallies held across Poland

(Patria) - Anti-immigrant protests were held yesterday in dozens of cities across Poland, the BBC reported last night.

Most demonstrations attracted a few hundred people or fewer on Saturday, but police estimate that around 3,000 participated in the largest rally in the southern city of Katowice.

The protests were organized by the far-right political group Confederation and another
nationalist organization. Politicians from Confederation and the opposition Law and Justice party
have warned of a flood of illegal migration into Poland, but official data does not support their claims.

"Without closing Poland to illegal immigration, without launching deportation campaigns, without
abandoning political correctness... security will gradually deteriorate," said
Confederation chairman Krzysztof Bosak to the gathered crowd in the eastern city of Bialystok.

At some gatherings, a minute of silence was held in memory of a twenty-four-year-old Polish woman murdered in the central city of Torun.

In the capital Warsaw, rival protests were held just a few meters apart. There were no reports of violence.

Police have meanwhile arrested a Venezuelan national in connection with this case.

Right-wing politicians say there is a danger that Poland could be flooded with illegal migrants. Immigration has increased in the last decade, but official data shows that migration so far this year is lower than in previous years.

Earlier this month, Poland introduced controls on its borders with Germany and Lithuania after Berlin began refusing asylum seekers. Germany introduced its own controls on the Polish and Czech borders in 2023.

In March, Poland temporarily suspended the right of migrants arriving in the country via the border with Belarus to apply for asylum.