Border Guards' authority to ban foreigners for up to five years questioned

The Citizens Rights Ombudsman has petitioned to the Supreme Administrative Court (NSA) to modify a clause in the Foreigners' Act which gives the commander of the Border Guards the right to declare a foreigner an unwanted person in Poland and bar them from entering for between two to five years. The Ombudsman acted after Virginia P, a Romanian citizen married to a Pole, was refused entry at the border and deported because the commander of the Border felt that she had been in Poland on several occasions for the wrong purpose. Another case involves a Gdansk restaurateur who is originally from Yugoslavia. He had traveled out of Poland and when he approached the Polish consulate for a visa, he was told he was in the register and would not be admitted into Poland. The Ombudsman is questioning the absolute power of the commander to make decisions concerning the lives of people without having to answer to anyone. (Gazeta Wyborcza, page 6)