flash news: #foreigners
According to a report on the activities of the State Labour Inspectorate (text in Polish), 9,138 inspections were carried out in 2023, in which almost 40,000 foreigners were checked at to the legality of their employment.
The Ministry of the Interior and Administration has announced that it will introduce a system in 2025 for registering the entries/exits of non-EU nationals who cross the Polish border.
The Polish registry is to be linked to the European EES system, which is responsible for registering the entries and exits of non-EU nationals at the European Union’s external borders.
According to the latest (published on 11 June 2024) information from Statistics Poland (GUS), more than one million foreigners (1,015,100) were working in Poland at the end of December 2023. Their share of the total number of people working in Poland was thus 6.6%. This means an increase of 4.2% in the number of foreigners working in Poland over the past year (comparing statistics from January and December 2023).
A proposal was posted on the website of the Government Legislation Centre on 23 May, 2024, for a bill of 15 May, 2024, on allowing foreigners access to the employment market. The bill simplifies and systematises the system of employment of foreigners in Poland, and is intended to streamline the procedure for legitimising employment, and eliminate abuse by employers of employees who are not Polish nationals.
A new bill on amending the Act on Foreigners and certain other acts has appeared on the website of the Government Legislation Centre. The scope of the envisaged changes has been narrowed, focusing on regulations concerning treaty obligations resulting from Poland's membership in the European Union as well as those resulting from the case-law of the Court of Justice of the EU.
Other changes, which were included in the previous version of the draft amendment (e.g. concerning the digitization of proceedings on legalisation of residence in Poland), are to be regulated separately.
On 31 March 2024, Bulgaria and Romania were 'partially' accepted into the Schengen area.
Controls on persons at the internal air and sea borders of both countries have now been abolished. However, controls remain in place at land borders between Bulgaria, Romania and the other Schengen countries.
The next step of integration is expected to be a decision on the targeted abolition of controls also at land borders by the end of 2024.