Retail, logistics and the food sector – these are the industries where you can most often find workers from Belarus. Our labour market needs foreigners. ‘However, Covid restrictions, as well as the situation on the Polish-Belarusian border do not make it easier for the citizens of this country to come to Poland. Vaccines used by our neighbours are not accepted on the territory of the European Union, which forces them to bear additional costs at the very beginning’, says Rafał Mróz, Operations Director of the EWL Group.
The Ministry of Family, Labour and Social Policy reports that the pandemic had no major impact on the employment of foreigners in almost half of the surveyed poviats, and according to more than 41 percent of respondents, the demand for foreign workers has increased. This is the official point of view. Rafał Mróz, Operations Director at the EWL Group, has a different one.
‘There is no denying that both, Covid restrictions and the situation on the Polish-Belarusian border do not make it easier for Belarusian citizens to come to Poland. Vaccines used by our Belarusian neighbours are not accepted on the territory of the European Union, which forces potential employees to incur additional costs associated with the necessity of quarantine on the Polish territory. An additional impediment is the situation on the Polish-Belarusian border, due to which some border crossings have been closed’.
Is it now more difficult to cross the Polish-Belarusian border? ‘Definitely, yes. Tensions on the border and the unstable socio-political situation in Belarus are the main impediments. The closure of air transport between Poland and Belarus is also not without consequences. Moreover, we are receiving information about increasing difficulties in obtaining a visa to Poland. All that makes it more and more difficult for Belarusians to get to Poland’, says Rafał Mróz.
He adds, however, that as far as the EWL Group is concerned the volume of employees from Belarus has not changed during this year.
‘Despite this situation we have been observing a steady interest in working in Poland among foreigners. This has been confirmed by the data on foreigners in Poland published by Statistics Poland and the Social Insurance Institution. Traditionally, the highest growth is recorded among the foreigners who are subject to the so-called simplified procedure. We expect that from the new year, the situation of Polish employers will improve even more, due to the changes adopted by the Parliament in the Act on employment of foreigners’, emphasizes Rafał Mróz.
