Some 800 asylum seekers who have lodged simultaneous applications for refuge in both Poland and other European Union member states have been made to return to Poland, the head of the Office for Repatriation and Foreigners said Wednesday.

In total, more than 2,000 asylum seekers will have to return to Poland, Jan Wegrzyn said.

EU legislation bans asylum seekers from lodging a second request for asylum when an application is already being processed in another member state.

"Lodging a second request for asylum in another EU member state proves that these foreigners do not want to live in Poland but simply want to get into Western Europe," Poland's PAP news agency quoted Wegrzyn as saying.

Since Poland joined the European Union in May last year, 8,000 people have sought asylum in the central European state, most of them from Chechnya.