Officers of the Silesian Border defender Branch detained 18 foreigners in 4 days. The majority received decisions requiring them to leave Poland within 30 days and temporary re-entry bans. This is simply a reminder of the apparent principle: a state that does not control the legality of residence and employment itself gives up part of its sovereignty.
Checks and return decisions
Among 18 people detained by officials of the Silesian Border defender Branch were, among others, citizens of Colombia, India and Ukraine. According to Kresy.pl, most foreigners received decisions requiring them to leave Poland within 30 days. They were besides subject to re-entry bans, applicable for up to 3 years.
These are administrative actions resulting from a violation of residence or employment laws, not a pretext for collective judgement of people due to their origin. Liability is individual. Equally individually, each case should be examined, but the decision taken must be subsequently effectively implemented. Otherwise, the rules stay only written on paper.
The Border defender besides began controls on companies employing any of the abroad detainees. It's an crucial part of the full thing. Illegal employment is not created in vacuum. On the another hand, there is an employer or intermediary who should keep his duties and cannot build advantage at the expense of circumventing the law.
Labour marketplace control protects honest people
An efficient state must not limit itself to checking the papers of employees themselves. It must besides control companies, contracts and the basis for legal employment. If an entrepreneur knowingly uses the work of persons without the required documents, he hits fair competition, legal workers and the credibility of the full system.
Order on the Polish labour marketplace is at stake. Residence and labour regulations are intended to defend both the safety of the state and people from exploitation. deficiency of control favours the grey economy, unfair middlemen and force on employment conditions. The cost of specified negligence is yet borne by Poles, honest enterprises and foreigners who completed all the formalities.
Therefore, checks should cover the full mechanism, from the legality of the stay to the work of the employer. Just making a return decision doesn't close the case. The State must know whether the decision has been implemented and the unlawful company should endure the consequences envisaged.
Borders are the competence of the state
Poland has the right to find who may be present in its territory and under what conditions it may take up work. It's the core of sovereignty, not an hostility to anyone. A foreigner residing and working legally should have clear rules. The individual violating these rules must have a return decision and the State must enforce it with respect for human rights and dignity.
The actions of the Silesian Border defender Branch show that control is possible. However, there is simply a request for consistency, including for companies benefiting from illegal employment. Without it, the strategy will respond to isolated cases alternatively of removing the causes of abuse.
For Poles, the issue has a very circumstantial dimension: it is about security, fair competition and certainty that the law applies to everyone. The State may not delegate control over accidental migration or the interests of intermediaries. Borders and residence rights only make sense if they are supported by the real activities of the services.
