Poland's Ministry of Internal Affairs called PiS's statements about deporting Ukrainians "absurd and populist"
Kyiv • UNN
A spokesperson for Poland's Ministry of Internal Affairs said that 95% of Ukrainian men of conscription age work legally and pay taxes. The ministry also reminded that those not working include wounded soldiers undergoing rehabilitation.
Spokesperson for Poland’s Ministry of the Interior and Administration Karolina Galiecka called the proposal by the opposition Law and Justice party (PiS) to deport Ukrainian men of conscription age who are not legally employed in the country “absurd and populist.” RMF24 reports, according to UNN.
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The day before, PiS Vice President and MEP Tobiasz Bocheński stated that if the party wins the 2027 elections, one of the first decisions of the new government would be to deport Ukrainian men of conscription age who do not have legal employment in Poland.
He also proposed creating a “Nielegalny alert” system which, according to the politician’s concept, would record two offenses or failures to fulfill administrative obligations and automatically launch deportation proceedings.
Poland’s Interior Ministry considers such statements unfounded. According to the ministry’s spokesperson, the vast majority of Ukrainian men of conscription age residing in Poland work legally and pay taxes.
These proposals are pure absurdity and populism. According to ZUS data, 95% of Ukrainian men of conscription age work legally in Poland and pay taxes, contributing to our country’s economic growth
She also emphasized that Ukrainians who violate Polish law can already be deported in accordance with existing procedures.
According to Poland’s Interior Ministry, in 2023, when PiS was in power, around 3,000 foreigners were deported from the country. In 2025, the figure was approximately 10,000 people of various nationalities.
“These figures show that the current government is pursuing a very tough policy toward those who violate the law,” the spokesperson noted.
At the same time, the country’s Interior Ministry questioned the practical implementation of the system of monitoring Ukrainians proposed by PiS. In particular, Galiecka asked how the party planned to determine who was residing in Poland legally and who was not, and whether this would involve document checks on the streets or mass inspections at businesses.
“We do not quite understand how PiS plans to conduct such checks. Do they want to create patrols that would check people’s documents on the streets, or conduct inspections at businesses? Poland is a hospitable and open country,” Galiecka said.
The country’s Interior Ministry also recalled that among Ukrainians who do not work in Poland there are categories of people who are physically unable to have permanent employment.
In particular, Deputy Interior Minister Maciej Duszczyk stated that this included, among others, Ukrainian service members undergoing rehabilitation in Poland after sustaining injuries.
“These are people who truly are not economically active, but they are wounded. Sometimes parents of children with disabilities whom we admitted to our territory several years ago, still under the PiS government, also do not work. Therefore, I really do not know which groups of people this initiative refers to,” Duszczyk said.
According to Poland’s Interior Ministry, the effectiveness of deportations in the country stood at around 65% in April—one of the highest rates in Europe. In other words, approximately two out of every three people who had previously been expelled from Poland do not attempt to re-enter the country.