Poland’s President Bronislaw Komorowski has signed an amnesty agreement for illegal immigrants and asylum seekers in Poland who have been residing in the country for a certain period of time.

According to the Polish media, on August 26, President Komorowski signed a new law which provides amnesty for illegal immigrants and asylum seekers. The new law will take effect on January 1, 2012. The amnesty applies to foreigners who have resided illegally in Poland since December 20, 2007 and for those whose asylum requests which were rejected before January 1, 2010 but still remained in Poland. The amnesty will provide a residence permit for two years which will also give them the ability to work during that time. The immigrants and asylum seekers now have six months to apply to the Polish administration in order to benefit from it.

“We want Poland to be an open, hospitable and friendly country for those who seek a better life,” said President Komorowski after signing the new law.

According to various sources, there may be between 40,000 to 400,000 illegal immigrants residing in Poland and thousands of them are from the Russian occupied Chechen Republic of Ichkeria whose asylum demands were rejected.

*Text was written by Waynakh Online and edited by Michael Capobianco