Asylum seekers are either accommodated in a reception centre or receive a monthly financial allowance to cover all costs of their stay in Poland.
Under the law, the material reception conditions offered in the centre are granted as a rule to all asylum seekers. An asylum seeker can obtain assistance granted outside the centre upon request, examined by the Head of the Office for Foreigners. It can be granted for organisational, safety or family reasons or to prepare asylum seekers for independent life after they have received any form of protection.[1] Most of the requests are accepted.[2]
All of the abovementioned reception conditions are applied in practice. As of 31 December 2023, 656 (compared to 732 in 2022) asylum seekers were residing in the reception centres. 3,493 (compared to 2,963 in 2022) asylum seekers were receiving assistance outside the centres.[3]
All asylum seekers (living in and out of the reception centre) can:
- attend a Polish language course and receive basic material supplies necessary for the course;
- receive school supplies for children, including, as far as possible, the expenses for extra-curricular classes, sports and recreational activities;
- have the costs of public transport covered to (a) attend interviews as part of the asylum procedure; (b) medical examinations or vaccinations; or (c) in other particularly justified cases;
- receive medical care.
Living in the reception centre
For asylum seekers accommodated in reception centres, material conditions include:
- Accommodation;
- Meals in the centre or a financial equivalent (PLN 11 / € 2.58) per day;
- Allowance for personal expenses of PLN 50 / € 11.72 per month;
- Permanent financial assistance of PLN 20 / € 4.69 per month for the purchase of hygienic articles or hygienic utilities;
- One-time financial assistance or coupons of PLN 140 / € 32.83 for the purchase of clothing and footwear.
The PLN 70 that asylum seekers receive every month (allowances for personal expenses and hygienic articles or hygienic utilities) is not enough to satisfy their basic needs.[4] Among other examples, an asylum seeker who stayed in one of the reception centres with his pregnant wife provided the following account:
“We had a shared kitchen where you could cook for your own needs. However, I don’t know where refugees can get money if they don’t have a work permit. And for the first six months, while waiting for the decision, they definitely don’t have it. Additionally, we only received about thirty zlotys a week for household items. Even though the centre was safe and we had a roof over our heads, we were not happy there.”[5]
Children attending schools are not eligible for the meals served in the reception centre. Instead, asylum-seeking parents receive a financial allowance of 11 PLN per day (330 PLN per month – 77.38 EUR) to buy food for their children, which proves insufficient to meet their needs.[6]
According to the law, in case an asylum seeker helps in a reception centre (i.e. performs cleaning work for the centre, provides translation or interpretation that facilitates communication between the personnel of the centre and asylum seekers, or provides cultural and educational activities for other asylum seekers who stay in the centre), the amount of the allowance for personal expenses may be raised to PLN 100 (€ 23.45). In 2023 this raise was applied in 268 cases.[7]
NGOs are constantly raising concerns regarding the fact that financial allowances for persons staying in the reception centres are inadequate to market situation and insufficient to satisfy the asylum seekers’ basic needs. Despite that, the allowances remained very low for many years. Thus, in the centres, humanitarian assistance must be continuously provided by the NGOs and private persons.[8]
Living outside the reception centre
For those assisted outside centres, there is one financial allowance for all costs of stay in Poland. This daily allowance depends on the family composition of the applicant:
| Financial allowance for all costs of stay in Poland (outside reception centres) | |
| Family composition | Amount per day |
| Single adult | PLN 25 / € 5.86 |
| Two family members | PLN 20 / € 4.69 |
| Three family members | PLN 15 / € 3.52 |
| Four or more family members | PLN 12.50 / € 2.93 |
The amount of financial allowance that asylum seekers receive is generally not sufficient to ensure an adequate standard of living in Poland.[9] With only PLN 750-775 (around € 175-181) per month, it is very difficult or even impossible to rent an apartment or even a room in Warsaw, where most asylum seekers stay during the procedure, particularly taking into account that owners are often unwilling to rent an apartment to third-country nationals, especially asylum seekers, and tend to increase rent or deposit in such situations.[10] As the amount of financial allowance is insufficient for renting separate accommodation, asylum seekers are often forced to live in overcrowded and insecure places. Many of them sleep in overcrowded apartments, where they have to share beds with other people or where living conditions do not provide privacy and personal safety.[11] Financial allowance for families of four amounts to PLN 1,500 (around € 350) per month and in practice it may be enough only to rent an apartment, however with great difficulty. Insufficient social assistance forces asylum seekers to work irregularly in order to ensure their subsistence and be able to afford rent costs. The amount of social assistance for asylum seekers has not been raised since 2003, even though the costs of living in Poland have increased significantly since then. As a result, material reception conditions are insufficient to ensure a decent standard of living as highlighted in the CJEU judgment in Saciri.[12] Moreover, the financial allowance that asylum seekers receive is not adjusted to their state of health, age or disability, which is also incompatible with the Saciri judgment.[13]
In February 2023, the Human Rights Commissioner once more called on the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Administration to increase allowances for asylum seekers and the Ministry declared that it plans changes in the respective law (however, without providing specific details on the anticipated changes).[14] In line with these remarks, in October 2023 a new text of the Ordinance on Amount of Assistance for Asylum Seekers was adopted, but no change in the amounts of allowances was introduced. The main aim of the amendment was to adapt it to the new division of competences between the Office for Foreigners and the Border Guard in force since April 2023.
[1] Article 72(1) Law on Protection.
[2] In 2023, 4,420 requests for the social assistance granted outside a centre were registered of which 4,234 were accepted (96%). Information from the Office for Foreigners, 16 February 2024.
[3] Information provided by the Office for Foreigners, 16 February 2024.
[4] PFM, ‘Czas w ośrodku to czas wykluczenia’, 2023, available in Polish at: https://bit.ly/3TZX1tK; Fundacja EMIC, ‘Wielokulturowa Grupa – wyjątkowa miejscowość w naszym województwie’, 5 August 2023, available in Polish at: https://bit.ly/3PICF5O; M. Pachocka, K. Pędziwiatr, K. Sobczak-Szelc, J. Szałańska (2020) ‘Reception Policies, Practices and Responses: Poland Country Report’, RESPOND Working Papers 2020/45, available at: http://bit.ly/3jLCvsV, 64, 84.
[5] ‘Pamiętniki uchodźcze’, Magazyn Kontakt 2023, available in Polish at: https://bit.ly/43MWxKS, 68 (author’s translation).
[6] Fundacja EMIC, ‘Wielokulturowa Grupa – wyjątkowa miejscowość w naszym województwie’, 5 August 2023, available in Polish at: https://bit.ly/3PICF5O.
[7] Information provided by the Office for Foreigners, 16 February 2024.
[8] Fundacja EMIC, ‘Wielokulturowa Grupa – wyjątkowa miejscowość w naszym województwie’, 5 August 2023, available in Polish at: https://bit.ly/3PICF5O.
[9] PFM, ‘Czas w ośrodku to czas wykluczenia’, 2023, available in Polish at: https://bit.ly/3TZX1tK; FRA, ‘Migration: Key Fundamental Rights Concerns: 1.7.2019-30.9.2019. Quarterly Bulletin’, 20, relying on the information from the HFHR and SIP. See also Lukasiewicz, K., ‘Exile to Poverty: Policies and Poverty Among Refugees in Poland’, International Migration Vol. 55 (6) 2017, 63-64.
[10] ‘List of recommendations to improve housing situation of Beneficiaries of International Protection in Poland – prepared by Refugee Council operating within the NIEM/V4NIEM’, 2021, available at: https://bit.ly/3MmsyjI; W. Goszczyński, R. Baczyński-Sielaczek, J. Suchomska, J, Stankowska and M. Wróblewski. ‘Lokalne systemy integracji uchodźców – badania’ in Fundacja EMIC and Pracownia Zrównoważonego Rozwoju, Wielogłos. Integracja uchodźców w polskich gminach, 2016, avaialble (in Polish) at: https://bit.ly/31srALw, 81.
[11] M. Pachocka, K. Pędziwiatr, K. Sobczak-Szelc, J. Szałańska, ‘Reception Policies, Practices and Responses: Poland Country Report’, 2020, RESPOND Working Papers 2020/45, available at: http://bit.ly/3jLCvsV, 56-58; W. Klaus, ‘Rozwiązania prawne stosowane w odniesieniu do osób starających się o ochronę w Polsce’ in A. Górny, H. Grzymała-Moszczyńska, W. Klaus and S. Łodziński, Uchodźcy w Polsce. Sytuacja prawna, skala napływu i integracja w społeczeństwie polskim oraz rekomendacje, PAN 2017, available (in Polish) at: https://bit.ly/2XEdsfZ , 22; Lukasiewicz, K., ‘Exile to Poverty: Policies and Poverty Among Refugees in Poland’, International Migration Vol. 55 (6) 2017, 63. Information provided also by SIP, 8 January 2020.
[12] CJEU, Case C‑79/13 Saciri, Judgment of 27 February 2014.
[13] See e.g. the HFHR’s opinion concerning planned increase of financial allowances for asylum seekers, 24 September 2021, available in Polish at: https://bit.ly/3vD2mv4.
[14] Human Rights Commissioner, ‘Interwencja RPO ws. świadczeń pieniężnych dla cudzoziemców ubiegających się o ochronę międzynarodową. MSWiA informuje, że będą zmiany w rozporządzeniu’, 2 March and 12 April 2023, available in Polish at: http://bit.ly/3ZqJYkl.