Ziobro used Geneva travel document for U.S. trip — Onet

Onet says Zbigniew Ziobro traveled to the United States on a Geneva travel document after his Polish passport was annulled. The document, his attorney Bartosz Lewandowski said, is issued under the Geneva Convention for refugees and people who cannot use a passport from their country of origin.

That detail answers the question that followed Ziobro’s arrival in the United States on Sunday. A Geneva travel document can be used to cross borders in states that recognize it, but it does not shield the holder from domestic or international arrest warrants.

Waldemar Żurek seeks legal basis

Justice Minister and Prosecutor General Waldemar Żurek said Poland will ask the United States and Hungary about the legal basis that allowed Ziobro to leave Hungary and enter the United States. Ziobro had previously been in Hungary, where he received political asylum, and the question now is not where he was seen, but what document let him move from one jurisdiction to another.

In Poland, applications for a Geneva travel document are submitted to the Head of the Office for Foreigners. That process sits at the center of the dispute because Ziobro’s Polish passport had already been annulled, leaving the Geneva document as the basis for travel cited by his attorney.

Bartosz Lewandowski defends the trip

Lewandowski rejected suggestions of an illegal departure and said, "Nie ma mowy o jakimś nielegalnym wyjeździe. Minister Ziobro może swobodnie podróżować poza Polską i skorzystał z tej furtki." He also said, "Taki podobny paszport uzyskał również pan minister Romanowski. (...). Wszystko odbyło się oczywiście lege artis."

The legal friction point is narrow but important: the Geneva travel document allows movement for a protected person, yet it does not erase the reach of arrest warrants. That leaves Poland’s planned questions to the United States and Hungary as the next step in a dispute over the basis of Ziobro’s movement, not over whether he was physically able to travel.

For now, the trip to the United States is no longer just a travel question. It is a documentation question, and the answer rests on how the United States and Hungary explain the route Ziobro used after his Polish passport was annulled.