The crisis on the Polish border with Belarus continues after the Polish Border Guard recorded more than 500 attempts to illegally cross into Polish territory just last weekend. The Border Guard detained seven illegal migrants – five from Syria and two from Somalia. The remaining attempts were stopped.
On Saturday, Sept. 11, the border officers stopped 244 attempts to cross the border and detained two Syrian citizens. Lieutenant Anna Michalska announced that four other foreigners (from Iran, Cameroon, Georgia and Tajikistan) were stopped on charges of having helped the migrants.
Meanwhile, on Sunday, the Border Guard recorded 265 attempts to illegally cross the Polish-Belarusian border and detained five people. In this case, the officers also stopped eight foreigners who had facilitated the border crossing.
Five of the foreigners were Syrian citizens with German and Belgian residence permits, as well as two Egyptian citizens with Polish residence cards and one Dutch citizen. The Egyptians were also currently studying in Poland.
Since Sept. 2, a state of emergency has been introduced on the border strip with Belarus in parts of the Podlaskie and Lubelskie regions. The area covers 183 towns and the state of emergency will last for 30 days based on an ordinance released by President Andrzej Duda at the behest of the Polish government.
Government representatives justified the necessity to introduce a state of emergency on the border with Belarus due to Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko’s government conducting hybrid warfare as well as the ongoing Russian Zapad-2021 military exercises which started on Sept. 10.
