Tension on the border between Poland and Belarus where a dozen migrants huddled near a barbed wire fence waiting to be able to enter Polish territory: one of them, a 24-year-old Syrian, reported that he had been waiting there for about a month.
Warsaw’s armed border guards patrolled the border, keeping a constant eye on the group, made up mostly of young people from the Middle East, some of whom injured themselves on the barbed wire fence. Reuters reports it.
Also in Poland there is a vote to renew the European Parliament: the electoral operations will begin on Sunday and one of the issues that took center stage was immigration with far-right parties calling for stricter border controls.
Poland arms soldiers on the border with Belarus
For Warsaw, which has been denouncing chaos at the borders since at least 2021, the arrival of migrants is but one side of the hybrid war unleashed by Russia and Belarus. The migrants, the Polish media write, sometimes throw stones and tree branches at the officers and the police are forced to respond with tear gas. Thus the government also allowed the use of weapons in addition to riot equipment.
Tension is also at its highest because a soldier patrolling the border was stabbed during a clash with migrants on May 28th. A few hours earlier, another officer was hit with a broken bottle, another was injured after being attacked with a dangerous tool to which a knife was attached. It happened in Dubicze Cerkiewne. The incident occurred during an attack by a group of around 50 foreigners who threw branches, tree branches and stones at Polish patrols. When the migrants tried to forcefully cross the border, one of them stabbed the Polish soldier.
«Almost every day, border guard officers are attacked by migrants trying to cross the Polish-Belarusian border. Attacks by foreigners against the Polish-Belarusian border protection services have intensified in recent months: four border guards were injured; Migrants throw stones, branches, bottles, carry dangerous tools with knives and shoot with slingshots. Company vehicles were also damaged, including: the windows are broken and the bodywork is destroyed”, reads a note from the Polish border guards.
In response, Prime Minister Donald Tusk’s centrist, pro-EU government announced plans to reintroduce a no-go zone along the border.
«This border is not secure, unfortunately. The purpose of this zone is to ensure that no one is exposed to the type of attack that Polish soldiers are exposed to,” Deputy Defense Minister Paweł Zalewski told Reuters.
Under current arrangements, migrants can only apply for asylum in EU member Poland once they are on Polish soil. In the forest on the Polish side of the border, migrants told Reuters they had built a ladder from wood, scraps of fabric and plastic bags, and climbed the fence at night.
One of them had initially applied for a Polish student visa from Yemen, which was refused, before traveling to Moscow, then to Belarus and then to the border area where he spent 22 days.
«We were captured by the Belarusians. They beat us… Then they said ‘go,’” she explained.
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