We all know what happened on April 15th 2013 in Boston:( Very sad and scary story! It had huge impact on USA and citizens, but it also made some changes in Europe…Tamerlan and Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, two brothers with Chechen origins stood behind the bombing.

The Boston bombing has triggered a wave of Chechen immigration into Poland (Czeczeńska imigracja do Polski) owing to fears the attack during the marathon could prompt the EU to harden its borders.

Image by marsmet532a on flickr.com

In the first weeks of May alone 1,943 Chechens applied for refugee status (status uchodźcy) in Poland compared to just 616 in January. Officials estimate that if the trend continues by the end of the year the number of refugees could jump by 30 per cent to 24,000.

Polish officials say the bloodletting and consequent damage to the Chechen reputation has fuelled fears in the war-torn country that the EU will tighten restrictions on Chechen immigration.

On top of that increasing anti-Chechen sentiment in Russia (nastroje anty-Czeczeńskie w Rosji), and more advanced people-smuggling operations have also contributed to the growing number of Chechens fleeing westwards.

An increase in the number of Chechen refugees in Poland could also lead to more illegal migration (nielegalna migracja) in Europe. Under EU regulations asylum seekers (ubiegający się o azyl) must remain in the country where they have applied for refugee status, only 20-30 per cent of those who apply in Poland stay in Poland. The rest disperse across the EU, with the majority going to Germany. Official Polish figures show that of the 2,060 requests by foreign countries to return illegal Chechen migrants to Poland 1,400 of them came from Germany.

Do następnego razu… (Till next time…)