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Poland will always support the people of Belarus: Polish deputy FM

09.10.2021 07:30
Poland will always support the people of Belarus, Polish Deputy Foreign Minister Marcin Przydacz told an informal UN Security Council meeting, hosted by Estonia on Friday.
Photo:
Photo:gov.pl

During the meeting, Przydacz addressed representatives of 31 countries gathered at the online event, saying that Belarusian strongman leader Alexander Lukashenko was cynically using third-countries’ citizens to create tensions and put immigration pressure on EU’s eastern border.

Przydacz also called on the Belarusian regime to release Andżelika Borys, the head of an association of Poles in Belarus, who is still being held after being detained by police in Belarus in March, and Andrzej Poczobut, a senior member of the association, who was detained in Grodno, close to the Polish border, the same month.

Since the start of August, Poland’s Border Guard has prevented some 15,000 illegal attempts to enter the country from Belarus. The agency’s detention facilities currently hold over 1,500 illegal immigrants, the rmf24.pl website reported.  

Poland's Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki on Wednesday said his country enjoyed full support within the European Union as it worked to defend itself against a migrant influx and a "hybrid war" being waged by Belarus.

Poland and fellow EU members Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia have accused Lukashenko of organising a wave of illegal migrants seeking to enter the bloc as part of what officials have called a "hybrid war."

The EU Commissioner for Home Affairs, Ylva Johansson, visited Poland last week, agreeing with Warsaw’s arguments that “firm steps” were needed against Belarus, according to officials.

Also last week, 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.

(tf)

Source: gov.pl