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Polish PM calls for solidarity amid eastern border crisis

06.09.2021 17:30
Poland's prime minister on Monday urged cross-party solidarity amid a crisis on the country's eastern border with Belarus.
Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki speaks at a news conference in Warsaw on Monday.
Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki speaks at a news conference in Warsaw on Monday.Photo: PAP/Piotr Nowak

Mateusz Morawiecki made the appeal as Polish lawmakers were due to debate a decree by President Andrzej Duda declaring a state of emergency in parts of two regions bordering Belarus.

"We don't need to agree on everything, but for God's sake, we should all be protecting the Polish border," Morawiecki said.

Ahead of the parliamentary debate, he called on all political groupings "to act with solidarity and responsibility in the face of the difficult situation on the eastern frontier."

'New provocations' every day

"Every day on the border brings new Belarusian provocations, and there have been hundreds of them," Morawiecki stated, adding that Polish border guards have thwarted over 4,000 illegal attempts to enter the country since the beginning of August.

He accused the authorities in Minsk of orchestrating the migrant surge.

"Not an hour passes without the Belarus authorities transferring migrants to the Polish border, from Iraq, Syria, Afghanistan, Lebanon, Egypt, Somalia--anywhere they can attract them," Morawiecki told a news conference.

'Organised effort by Belarusian security forces'

He argued that a group of asylum seekers camping near the Polish village of Usnarz Górny on the Belarus border was "a smokescreen for an organised effort by Belarusian security forces."

"They had planned to create many more such places," he told reporters.

A group of some 30 Afghan migrants have been stuck for days near the Polish village of Usnarz Górny, with Belarus blocking their retreat and Poland refusing to let them into its territory, news agencies reported.

Morawiecki told reporters that Belarusian officials were providing the arriving immigrants with food and helping them cross illegally into Poland.

He added that Polish authorities were detaining "individuals who work with the regime of" Belarus' strongman leader Alexander Lukashenko "and who are trying to transfer migrants into Poland by illegal means."

"We appeal to Belarus authorities to stop these attempts and accept our humanitarian aid," the Polish prime minister also said.

(pm/gs)

Source: IAR, PAP, niezalezna.pl