Cessation and review of protection status

Poland has a single procedure (“deprivation”) for the cessation and/or withdrawal of international protection.

Refugee status is ceased if a third-country national:[1]

1. Has voluntarily settled in the country, which he or she had left for fear of persecution;
2. Has voluntarily accepted protection of a country he or she is a citizen of;
3. Has voluntarily accepted the citizenship of the country of origin, which he or she had lost before;
4. Has acquired new citizenship and he or she is under the protection of the state whose citizen he or she has become;
5. Can no longer refuse to accept the protection of the country of origin, because the reasons why he or she was granted a refugee status no longer exist, and he or she did not present convincing arguments as to why he or she cannot accept this protection. The same applies to countries of habitual residence for stateless persons.

Subsidiary protection is ceased, if the circumstances which were the reason for granting subsidiary protection no longer exist or have changed in such a way that a third-country national no longer requires protection.[2]

The deprivation procedure is initiated by the Head of the Office for Foreigners ex officio or on other authorities’ demand.[3] Asylum seekers should be informed about the initiation of the respective proceedings as soon as they started. The procedure should last no longer than 6 months.[4] During the procedure, a refugee or a subsidiary protection beneficiary should be interviewed, particularly to present reasons as to why they should not be deprived of the protection. A third-country national can also present arguments in writing.[5]

A decision on deprivation of international protection is issued by the Head of the Office for Foreigners and can be appealed to the Refugee Board with suspensive effect. A third country national should leave Poland within 30 days from the day of the delivery of the Refugee Board’s decision on deprivation of international protection. In the same period, he or she can make the complaint to the Voivodeship Administrative Court in Warsaw. This onward appeal does not entail an automatic suspensive effect but a third-country national can request the court to suspend the final decision on deprivation of international protection. However, it takes sometimes even a couple of months to suspend the decision by the court on the third-country national’s demand. During that period a third-country national stays irregularly in Poland, so return proceedings may be initiated against him/her and removal may be enforced.

Only some refugees and subsidiary protection beneficiaries are entitled to free legal assistance in cessation proceedings, namely those whose income is so low that it would qualify them for social welfare.[6] Free legal assistance is only provided in the appeal proceedings; it does not include the first-instance procedure.[7] Before the court, the third-country national can apply for free legal assistance by lawyer following the general rules (see Legal Assistance).

A third-country national who was deprived of international protection is obliged to return the residence card immediately to the Head of the Office for Foreigners, no later than 14 days from the moment when a decision concerning deprivation of international protection becomes final.[8]

There is a single procedure in Poland that includes the cessation and withdrawal of international protection. In consequence, the beneficiary may receive a decision on deprivation of international protection, as it is called in Poland, which can be issued on the grounds justifying only a cessation or only a withdrawal or both. The Office for Foreigners shares the data on a general number of ‘deprivations’ and how often the exact legal basis was used in the respective decisions. From 2017 to 2023, the total number of persons deprived of international protection as a result of a cessation or withdrawal procedure was as follows:

Source: Office for Foreigners.

The above figures do not distinguish between cessation and withdrawal procedures as both fall under the category “deprivation of international protection” in the statistics shared by the OFF. Nevertheless, based on an analysis of the grounds used to deprive international protection, cessation and withdrawal procedures seem to have been applied in recent years as follows: In 2020, 95 Russian citizens had their subsidiary protection ceased (94) and/or withdrawn (4). In 12 cases the refugee status was ceased (11 Russian citizens, 1 Sri Lankan national). In 2021, 32 Russian citizens had their subsidiary protection status ceased (28) and/or withdrawn (4). In 4 cases, the refugee status was ceased (all Russian citizens).[9] In 2022, 9 persons had their refugee status ceased or withdrawn (including 6 Russian citizens, 2 Turkish citizens and 1 Afghan citizen). 33 beneficiaries had their subsidiary protection status ceased or withdrawn (including 31 Russian citizens and 2 Afghan citizens).[10] In 2023, refugee status was ceased or withdrawn for 8 persons (2 Russian citizens, 2 Egyptian citizens, 2 Syrian citizens and 2 Uzbek citizens), 67 beneficiaries had their subsidiary protection status ceased or withdrawn (including 63 Russian citizens, 2 Belarusian citizens, 1 Iraqi citizen and 1 Pakistani citizen).[11] Statistical data for 2022 and 2023 provided by the Office for Foreigners did not allow to differentiate between cases in which the protection status had been ceased, or was withdrawn.

As regards the grounds for depriving international protection, the following cessation grounds were applied in 2023:

Source: Office for Foreigners.

The above-mentioned figures reveal that nationals of the Russian Federation are the beneficiaries of protection most frequently deprived of their status in Poland. Cessation is not systematically applied to them, however. In 2023, 113 Russian citizens were granted refugee status in Poland, and 79 – received subsidiary protection.[12] Approx. 100 Russian citizens obtained international protection in Poland in 2022, 89 in 2021, 66 in 2020.[13] In 2018-2021 Russian citizens were deprived of refugee status predominantly due to having voluntarily accepted protection from the Russian Federation. They were deprived of subsidiary protection predominantly because the circumstances which were the reason for granting subsidiary protection no longer existed or changed in such a way that a third-country national no longer required protection (in 150 cases in 2018, 97 in 2019, 94 in 2020 and 28 in 2021).[14] Based on data received for 2022, it is not possible to establish how many similar cases were registered throughout the year. In 2023, 63 Russian citizens were deprived of subsidiary protection due to the change of circumstances.[15]

HFHR concludes that Russian citizens have mostly been deprived of protection as a result of travel to their country of origin after they obtained international protection.[16] The finding is confirmed by the SIP. According to the organisation, returning to the country of origin – even only to obtain needed documents or to take care of ill family members – is a reason to deprive refugees and beneficiaries of subsidiary protection of their status. The same effect may be entailed by obtaining a passport in the embassy of the country of origin. SIP also points out that beneficiaries of international protection are deprived of protection due to a changed situation in Chechnya. However, in its opinion, both the individual and general circumstances of those cases are not scrutinized sufficiently by Polish authorities.[17]

In 2022, the Supreme Administrative Court delivered a judgment concerning the cessation of subsidiary protection of a Russian national. The reasons for cessation were twofold: the beneficiary obtained a Russian passport, travelled to Russia 5 times, and the situation in Chechnya significantly changed since his arrival in Poland in 2005. The cassation appeal submitted by the Russian national was dismissed by the Supreme Administrative Court. In particular, the court found that the statements of the complainant that he obtained a passport through an intermediary were not credible, as the passport was biometric; thus, it required personal contact with Russian authorities to provide fingerprints. Moreover, the complainant did not manage to convince the court that he would be individually at risk of harm upon return to Chechnya.[18] In a similar case, concerning a Russian family of five, having subsidiary protection since 2008, the Supreme Administrative Court accepted that they should be deprived of protection because they obtained a passport from Russian authorities. The court did not find it problematic that the decision of the Head of the Office for Foreigners was issued in 2019 and was based solely on the travels from Poland in the Eastern direction in 2011-2012, while the Russian passport was issued in 2012. The beneficiaries’ explanations that they stayed in Belarus and obtained a passport through an intermediary were not found credible.[19]

In 2018-2021 some Russian citizens were also deprived of subsidiary protection because they were considered a security threat or there were serious grounds to believe that they committed a crime (see Withdrawal of protection status).[20] Data shared by the Office for Foreigners does not allow to determine how many Russian citizens were deprived international protection for these reasons in 2022-2023.

In 2023, a case concerning a Russian national deprived of subsidiary protection was communicated by the ECtHR (no. 9323/19, N.M. v. Poland). The return decision was issued based on the fact that the military conflict in Chechnya finished and the applicant was considered a security threat. For the latter reason, the appeal against the return decision did not entail a suspensive effect. Relying on Article 13 of the ECHR, in conjunction with Article 3 of the ECHR, the applicant complained about the lack of an effective remedy with a suspensive effect to appeal against the decision ordering his return to Russia.

In 2023, the Refugee Board rejected the appeals of 28 persons deprived of international protection (mostly Russian nationals – 22). 16 complaints to the court were submitted.[21] Only in one case, the court revoked the second-instance and the first-instance decision, in the remaining 13 cases decided in 2023 it dismissed the beneficiaries’ complaints.[22]

[1] Article 21(1) Law on Protection.                

[2] Article 22(1) Law on Protection.

[3] Article 54b Law on Protection.

[4] Article 54a Law on Protection.

[5] Article 54d(1) Law on Protection.

[6] Article 69d(2) Law on Protection.

[7] Article 69d Law on Protection.

[8] Article 89l(1) and (3) Law on Protection.

[9] Information provided by the Office for Foreigners since 2019.

[10] Information provided by the Office for Foreigners, 3 February 2023.

[11] Information provided by the Office for Foreigners, 16 February 2024.

[12] Information provided by the Office for Foreigners, 16 February 2024.

[13] Information provided by the Office for Foreigners, 1 February 2018, 15 January 2019, 22 January 2020, 26 January 2021 and 26 January 2022. Office for Foreigners, ‘Ochrona międzynarodowa w 2022 r. – ponad dwukrotny wzrost rozpatrzonych wniosków’, 24 January 2023, available in Polish at: http://bit.ly/3G1URT1.

[14] Information provided by the Office for Foreigners, 15 January 2019, 22 January 2020 and 26 January 2021.

[15] Information provided by the Office for Foreigners, 16 February 2024.

[16] This reasoning was confirmed by the Supreme Administrative Court in Decision No II OSK 1493/14, 23 February 2016: Lex.pl, ‘NSA: uchodźcy z Czeczenii muszą wrócić do kraju’, 26 February 2016, available (in Polish) at: https://bit.ly/2w3JQiM.

[17] M. Sadowska, ‘Pozbawienie cudzoziemca ochrony międzynarodowej w Polsce’ in SIP, Prawa cudzoziemców w Polsce w 2019 roku. Raport, 2020, available (in Polish) at: https://bit.ly/3jT7weM, 24-25; A. Pulchny, ‘Pozbawienie cudzoziemca ochrony międzynarodowej w Polsce’ in Stowarzyszenie Interwencji Prawnej (SIP), SIP w działaniu. Prawa cudzoziemców w Polsce w 2018 r. (2019), available (in Polish) at: https://bit.ly/2w3KcpC, 24-25.

[18] Supreme Administrative Court, Judgment of 5 July 2022, no. II OSK 1868/21, available here in Polish: http://bit.ly/3K2hvvK.

[19] Supreme Administrative Court, Judgment of 11 January 2022, no. II OSK 1754/21, available here in Polish: http://bit.ly/3ZuqefY; Supreme Administrative Court, Judgment of 11 January 2022, no. II OSK 1177/21, available here in Polish: http://bit.ly/42U70mI.

[20] Information provided by the Office for Foreigners, 15 January 2019, 22 January 2020 and 26 January 2021.

[21] Information from the Refugee Board, 3 April 2024.

[22] Information provided by the Voivodeship Administrative Court in Warsaw, 12 February 2024.