Polish president discusses migration at UN summit

Duda’s speech focused on the need to distinguish between refugees and economic migrants.

He said: "What is often lacking in discussions... is a distinction between economic migration and war refugees. These different phenomena need quite different answers.

“If we conflate the tragedy of refugees with the needs of economic migrants, we are not able to effectively help any of these groups," Duda added.

His visit to the UN is taking place during a five-day trip by the Polish president and his wife to the US.

On Sunday, Duda and Polish First Lady Agata Kornhauser-Duda met with members of the Polish community in the US.

Duda unveiled a monument to the "Cursed Soldiers" at the Shrine of Our Lady of Częstochowa in the state of Pennsylvania.

“The Cursed Soldiers were beautiful people, raised in a patriotic tradition, in a deep sense of value which is the homeland. For them, there was nothing more terrible than there not being a free fatherland, and believed that [Poland] was still not free, despite the end of the Second World War, and the German occupiers being removed. They saw that a free Poland was still a dream, and all that had changed was the yoke,” President Duda said at the ceremony at the cemetery in Doylestown, Pennsylvania.

The so-called “Cursed Soldiers” fought against the imposition of communism in Poland.

Poland's official underground army (AK) was disbanded in January 1945, but thousands of Poles continued to fight in other formations, as the Red Army extended its grip across the country.

The anti-communist guerrillas were largely stamped out by 1948, although one fighter, Józef Franczak, was gunned down as late as 1963. (rg)