Last Sunday, 24 foreigners from Tunisia, Algeria and Somalia, among others, tried to illegally enter Polish territory from Belarus, Poland’s Border Guard has revealed.
According to a statement tweeted by the force early on Monday morning, the incidents took place in the Podlaskie region. In May, there had already been recorded 380 attempts to cross the Polish border illegally from Belarus with 4,799 being recorded for the year to date.
In addition, Saturday saw a further 27 foreign nationals attempt to cross the Polish border, most of whom were citizens of Mali and Cuba. Authorities revealed how the economic migrants tried to force their way into Poland near to the Polish town of Czeremcha, around 40 kilometers north-west of Brest in Belarus. Some 20 illegal migrants were transported by the Belarusian services in official cars — both the migrants and the Belarusian services reportedly threw stones at Polish patrols.
For the last two months, especially since the beginning of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the issue of defending the Polish-Belarusian border has not attracted much media attention, but the threat associated with the illegal migration is still present.
“The Polish-Belarusian border is still dangerous,” spokesperson of the Minister-Special Services Coordinator Stanisław Żaryn informed on Twitter. “Latest attempts to illegally cross the border were protected by Lukashenko regime services; stones and firecrackers were thrown at Polish patrols,” he added.
The Polish Border Guard also provided statistics on border checks on the Polish-Ukrainian border crossings. From Feb. 24, 3.26 million people from Ukraine were taken in by Poland. From the beginning of the war 1.123 million people went to Ukraine.
