Poland reports nearly 600 illegal attempts to cross its border from Belarus

Poland's Border Guard service (SG) on Saturday reported 592 illegal entry attempts made from Belarus the previous day.

Poland's border with Belarus near the village of Usnarz Górny, the Podlasie province, eastern Poland.

Photo: Yarl, CC BY-SA 3.0 , via Wikimedia Commons

One illegal immigrant – an Iraqi national – was detained.

Other attempts were thwarted and ten foreigners - from Turkey, Germany, Romania, Georgia, Bulgaria, Tunisia and Moldova, were arrested for aiding and abetting, the service said.

Also, the Polish Border Guard posted a video on Twitter showing a group of 70 migrants who gathered on the Belarusian side and tried to force their way through the border fence.

70-osobowa grupa cudzoziemców próbowała wczoraj tj.15.10 forsować granicę polsko🇵🇱-białoruską🇧🇾 na odcinku ochranianym przez Placówkę Straży Granicznej w Mielniku. Granicy broniliśmy wspólnie z żołnierzami #WojskoPolskie #NaStrażyBezpieczeństwa pic.twitter.com/O1oDsDeEBg

— Straż Graniczna (@Straz_Graniczna) October 16, 2021

Poland’s border service has reported over 18,000 attempts to illegally cross from Belarus this year.

Both Poland and the Baltic states of Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia have accused the authorities in Minsk of supporting the unlawful entry of these people into their countries.

Late last month, Polish lawmakers voted overwhelmingly to extend a state of emergency in parts of two regions along the country's eastern border with Belarus by two months amid a growing migrant surge.

The state of emergency gives authorities broader powers to monitor and control the movement of people on the Polish-Belarusian border, which is also the eastern border of the European Union.

(ał)

Source: PAP, IAR