Poland’s president has condemned the government’s contentious plan to suspend the right to asylum for irregular migrants, calling it a “fatal mistake.”

Members of Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk's coalition government have expressed concerns about plans to suspend the right to asylum, amid unease that the measures may break the constitution and international law.

Poland's president condemned a government plan to temporarily suspend the right to asylum on Wednesday, saying it would harm members of the Belarusian opposition fleeing repression in their own country.

Poland's plans to temporarily suspend the right to asylum are based on the assumption that neighbouring Belarus is seeking to push a large number of migrants towards the country's shared border, deputy Interior Minister Maciej Duszczyk says.

By Wojciech Kosc in Poland The European Union told Poland on October 14 that its international legal obligations guaranteeing the right of asylum cannot be suspended to stop Russia and Belarus trying to sow chaos by pushing migrants over the border.

Poland's Prime Minister Donald Tusk said on Wednesday he would protect his country's eastern border, dismissing criticism that a plan to temporarily stop accepting asylum applications violated human rights.