Poland already has 3,000 soldiers on the border with Belarus – PRAVDA.sk

Poland has increased the number of its troops deployed on the border with Belarus, due to the continuing influx of migrants.

Polish security forces block migrants on the border with Belarus in the village of Usnarz Gorny

Polish Defense Minister Mariusz Blaszczak announced on Wednesday that he was currently providing support to 3,000 troops for border guards. That’s 600 more than last week.

“Securing the border with Belarus is currently the most important task,” Blaszczak wrote on Twitter. “In the coming days, military helicopters will patrol along the Polish-Belarusian border,” he added.

Last Thursday, Poland extended the state of emergency at the border by two months – until the end of November. The Polish border guard said it arrested 13 migrants on Tuesday, October 5.

The Polish government accuses the regime in Belarus of helping migrants from countries in war. The Belarusian authorities, on the other hand, accuse the West of creating chaos in these countries, and their people are therefore looking for a better life elsewhere.

Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko said in May that Belarus would no longer prevent migrants from crossing borders into EU countries. It was a response to the sanctions imposed by the EU on Belarus.

Read more Lukashenko meets with Putin: Western sanctions have strengthened relations between Russia and Belarus

Cichanovská warned of a humanitarian crisis

On Wednesday, Belarusian opposition leader Sviatlana Cichanovskaya called on the international community to stop the humanitarian crisis caused by the regime of Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko by encouraging illegal migration to the EU. Cichanovska made this statement during her visit to Poland.

“I urge the UN and the international community to act and stop the humanitarian catastrophe in Central Europe,” Cichanovska told a news conference during the Warsaw Security Forum. According to the Belarusian opposition leader, this is revenge on the part of Minsk for Poland and Lithuania supporting the Belarusian opposition.

At the same time, Cichanovska did not directly criticize Poland’s approach, which includes denying migrants the right to seek asylum and sending some families with children back beyond the Belarusian border. However, she noted that “people crossing borders are not the culprits, but the victims”.

According to her, there are still about ten thousand to fifteen thousand people in Belarus who hope to enter the EU, while their number is still growing. Cichanovská did not state the source of these figures.

During her visit to Warsaw, Cichanovska also met with Polish President Andrzej Dud and other Polish officials who support the efforts of the Belarusian opposition and help people whose freedoms are being suppressed by the Lukashenko regime.

Belarus has provided thousands of migrants from Syria, Iraq, Afghanistan and Africa with tourist visas in an effort to encourage them to later move to Poland, Lithuania and, to a lesser extent, Latvia.

Several people have recently died from exhaustion as they try to get from Belarus to Poland through forests and swamps. Cichanovská therefore warned that “with the arrival of winter, these deaths will increase and there may be tens of them.”

Photo: SITA / AP, Czarek Sokolowski

Sviatlana Cichanovská Belarusian opposition opposition leader Sviatlana Cichanovska during a speech at the Warsaw Security Forum in Warsaw, Poland on October 5, 2021