A recent poll has revealed that a whopping 74 percent of Poles are against the country accepting refugees from the Middle East and Africa.
A similar survey was conducted around January and the percentage was over half, suggesting an increase in the last four months.
One in five of those who participated in the poll supported the relocation of refugees to Poland, while the rest had no opinion. The poll was specifically concerned about the relocation of migrants from camps in countries along Europe's Mediterranean coast under an EU decision that each bloc country would accept a certain number of asylum seekers over two years.
The decision was reached back in 2015 and was aimed at alleviating the pressure on Greece and Italy, which have seen the arrival of tens of thousands of asylum seekers from the Middle East.
The EU leaders reached a consensus to relocate a total of about 160,000 refugees. More than two million people have arrived in Europe since 2015. Despite the agreement, only 14,000 people from refugee camps in countries along the Mediterranean coast have been relocated in the EU.
Some countries such as Poland have not yet taken in any of the refugees. The country had been obliged to accept 6,200 refugees. There was a correlation between opinions on accepting migrants and political preferences as revealed by the CBOS survey.
Approximately 90 percent of those who said they would vote for the ruling conservative Law and Justice party or the Kukiz'15 party were against accepting migrants. Those who would vote for the Civic Platform and Nowoczesna parties were divided. Those in favor and against the relocation scheme almost amounting to an equal number.
The participants who resided in cities and had a tertiary education, and earned higher incomes were most favorable of accepting migrants. Participants from Poland were comfortable with accepting refugees from western Ukraine. The CBOS survey indicated that 55 percent of the participant supported the move while 40 percent were uncomfortable with migrants.
