Asylum seekers from Greece, Italy in Poland in March - agency

First asylum seekers, about 65 migrants relocated from Greece and 35 from Italy, will likely come to Poland in March and after security screening will be located in a centre near Warsaw, head of the Office for Foreigners (UdSC) Rafal Rogala has told PAP.

PAP/EPA © 2016 / PANAGIOTIS BALASKAS / epa05140225 Migrants and refugees arrive at a refugee camp under construction in Moria, Lesvos Island, Greece, 02 February 2016. European Commissioner for Migration, Home Affairs and Citizenship Dimitris Avramopoulos noted that the government's decision to actively involve the armed forces in setting up hotspots is a very important development and that the European Commission and its President Jean-Claude Juncker have already been informed about it. The country has been accused of letting people move through its territory largely unchecked, even though its border with Turkey is an external frontier of Europe's free-travel Schengen zone. EPA/PANAGIOTIS BALASKAS Dostawca: PAP/EPA. PAP/EPA © 2016 / PANAGIOTIS BALASKAS

EU countries are to admit 160,000 refugees within EU relocation programmes in 2016 and 2017, mostly from Greece and Italy, which bore the brunt of the recent refugee influx of more than one million migrants arriving in Europe in 2015. Poland has agreed to take in about 7,000 refugees, including up to 400 this year.

According to Poland's December arrangements with the EU, Poland was to accept first migrants within three and a half months.

Poland has said it is ready to take in 100 people first but it is still unclear how many of them will decide to come, Rafal Rogala said.

"Those people are being screened, also for security reasons, and consultations with Greece and Italy are underway," Rogala said.

Greece's asylum seekers are mainly families from Syria, Iraq, Eritrea and Yemen, while Italy's are mainly single men from Eritrea, the UdSC head added.

During their stay in the centre in Podkowa Lesna-Debak, located 25 kilometres south-west of Warsaw, they will be offered Polish language courses and cultural orientation classes, while children will be obliged to attend school. "We will try to help these people to be offered international protection as quickly as possible so that their stay in the centre is not too long," Rogala said. (PAP)

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