Migrants now account for approximately 3.7 percent of the global population, Radosław Sikorski told the gathering, which focused on human rights and the legal and geopolitical dimensions of migration and asylum.
In his speech, Sikorski highlighted the rising scale of displacement.
"These figures illustrate what we hear on daily news: that more and more people in various regions are forced to leave their homes as a result of conflict, human rights violations, climate change or economic hardship," he said.
In Europe, the number of international migrants rose from 51 million in 1990 (7 percent of the population) to 94 million in mid-2024 (12.6 percent).
Last year, around 1 million asylum applications were filed in the EU, while the total number of refugees and asylum seekers worldwide reached 45 million in 2023.
Sikorski also noted Poland’s ongoing support for Ukrainians fleeing Russian aggression, with the country hosting around 1.5 million Ukrainian nationals.
The Polish foreign minister told the gathering that legal and well-managed migration brings clear economic benefits, including GDP growth, but stressed that "migration is not a human right and must be subject to limitations" regulated by states.
He also warned that rising fear and hostility towards migrants provide easy tools for populists and extremists across Europe.
Sikorski added that "if European democracies and international human rights organisations fail to find balanced responses to the current challenges, undemocratic groups will step in."
"They will take over the leadership, take over the debate and impose solutions that may completely disregard human rights commitments," he added.
The minister further warned that illegal migration is being exploited by regimes in Belarus and Russia for "hostile hybrid actions."
Michael O’Flaherty, the Council of Europe’s Commissioner for Human Rights and a special guest at the seminar, highlighted the broader pressures on societies, including the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic, the rise of artificial intelligence and growing economic inequalities.
He said the world was permeated with violence, citing conflicts in Ukraine, Gaza and Sudan, and warned of nuclear risks.
O’Flaherty called for renewed commitment to human rights as a roadmap for safeguarding human dignity, condemning discourses that wrongly associate migrants with crime.
The Warsaw Human Rights Seminars, organised annually by Poland’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, provide an international forum for discussion on the European Convention on Human Rights and related court rulings.
(ał/gs)
Source: PAP