Migrant smuggler gangs are looking for clients via social media to transport them across the Polish-Belarusian border, with a surge in their activities recently observed on TikTok. Videos are being shared of people equipped with metal-cutting tools attempting to breach the barrier at the Polish-Belarusian border.
These recordings are now serving as a form of advertising for potential illegal migrants. They aim to encourage more people from all over the world to travel through Belarus and Poland to Germany.
Since the beginning of the wave of illegal migration supported by Aleksandr Lukashenko’s regime, such “services” are particularly promoted on Arabic-speaking profiles.
Among the shared content is footage from campsites in the forests on the Polish-Belarusian border, clips of attempts to destroy barriers using metal-cutting tools, and moments captured when migrants are received by couriers on the Polish side.
The videos mainly show young men, and the profiles often include contact numbers for people organizing these trips, which often begin in Middle Eastern countries. They often also pass through Moscow.
In October of last year, the Polish paper Gazeta Polska Codziennie described the same method of advertising for the smuggling of illegal migrants, which concerned the Balkan route, where smuggling gangs also operate.
According to Polish authorities, Belarusian intelligence services bring not only migrants to the border but also equipment to cross the border, such as ladders and metal-cutting tools. These migrants then also often attack Polish authorities with stones, bricks and cobblestones.
The Polish Border Guard said that on July 30, as many as 228 people tried to illegally cross into Poland from Belarus. These were citizens of India, Iran, Egypt and Somalia, among others. Polish patrols were pelted with stones and tree branches after thwarting an attempt by a group of 20 people to cross the border.
