Polish Police Blocks Hundreds of Migrants As They Mass along Border with Belarus (+Video)
TEHRAN (Tasnim) – Hundreds of migrants and refugees were repelled as they attempted to enter Poland from Belarus, while thousands more were on their way, according to Poland.
Warsaw said it had deployed additional soldiers, border guards and police in response to the situation along its eastern border, while video clips shared on social media purportedly showed people walking towards the frontier and some trying to breach a barbed-wire border fence using spades and other items, Al Jazeera reported.
The developments appeared to signal an escalation of a crisis that has been rumbling for months.
The European Union has accused Minsk of encouraging migrants from the Middle East and Africa to cross into the bloc via member states Poland, Lithuania and Latvia from Belarus as a form of hybrid warfare in revenge for Western sanctions on President Alexander Lukashenko’s government.
Lukashenko has repeatedly denied those accusations.
Poland said it had withstood the first attempts on Monday by those gathered along its border to force their way across the frontier.
A video distributed by Polish authorities showed one man cutting part of a barbed-wire fence, another attacking the fence with a spade, while a Polish soldier sprayed an unidentified substance from a can.
In an earlier video, shared by the Belarusian blogging service NEXTA, people carrying rucksacks and wearing winter clothing were seen walking on the side of a highway. Other videos showed large groups sitting by the road and being escorted by armed men dressed in khaki.
Polish government spokesman Piotr Muller told reporters that 3,000-4,000 migrants were near the Polish border.
The Belarusian state border committee confirmed on Monday that many migrants and refugees were moving towards the Polish border. It also said Warsaw, which has stationed more than 12,000 troops in the region, was taking an “inhumane attitude”.
Lithuania, meanwhile, said it was moving additional troops to its border with Belarus to prepare for a possible surge in attempted crossings from the latter, while Latvia described the situation as “alarming”.
Poland and Germany won’t be able to deal with the migrant crisis on the Belarus border on their own, German caretaker Interior Minister Horst Seehofer said Tuesday, urging all EU members to unite in protecting the block’s frontiers.
“We must help the Polish government secure their external border. This would actually be the task of the European Commission. I’m now appealing to them to take action,” Seehofer told Bild newspaper on Tuesday.
Some 3,000 migrants from the Middle East and Africa, who are looking to make it into Poland and request asylum in the EU, are currently besieging the border between Poland and Belarus.
Seehofer has accused Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko of using those people “to destabilize the West,” calling on “all EU states” to unite to counter those attempts, according to RT.
The minister’s words echoed those of European Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen, who on Monday called the events on the Poland-Belarus border a “hybrid attack” orchestrated by Minsk to destabilize Europe and called for sanctions.
