WARSAW, Poland — Poland’s foreign minister has defended US President Donald Trump’s immigration order banning entry to people from seven mostly Muslim countries, arguing that every sovereign country has the right to decide its own immigration policy.

Witold Waszczykowski said “no state has the duty to accept immigrants” and that Trump “was elected president, he has the right” to impose the ban.

Waszczykowski made his comments Sunday evening on Polsat News, a private television station.

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Waszczykowski belongs to a conservative government that is strongly opposed to accepting Muslim refugees. Last year it played a key role in blocking a European Union effort to resettle refugees across the bloc.

Trump’s immigration order has sparked protests at airports and the condemnation of many across the world as a human rights violation.

Copyright 2017 The Associated Press.