Poland’s government has accused Belarus of using migrants as “living weapons” in a “hybrid war”. Polish border guards have in recent days apprehended a large number of people illegally crossing the border between the two countries.
On Wednesday, they detained 62 citizens of Iraq, Iran and Cameroon, including 13 children. Yesterday, in the same part of the Polish-Belarusian border, a group of 71 foreigners without identification papers were detained, with 33 children among them. They have been transferred to holding centres.
Deputy interior minister Maciej Wąsik claims that Belarusian officials may be deliberately letting migrants cross the border as retaliation against Poland for this week offering refuge to athlete Krystina Tsimanouskaya after she refused to return to Belarus from the Tokyo Olympics.
"I'm glad I'm safe and am grateful to the Polish diplomatic service and government," said Krystina Tsimanouskaya at a press conference in Warsaw after Poland granted her a humanitarian visa.
She said that she and her husband now hope to settle in Poland https://t.co/WI6kAw8gIZ
— Notes from Poland 🇵🇱 (@notesfrompoland) August 5, 2021
There has been an “increased traffic [of illegal migrants] on the Polish-Belarussian border” in recent days, Wąsik told wPolityce. These “illegal migrants are let through into Poland and Lithuania by Belarusian border guards” as part of a “hybrid war” Minsk is waging against the EU, he said.
The aim is to “destabilise the situation in neighbouring countries”, Wąsik added in an interview with Radio Szczecin. Both Poland and Lithuania have drawn Minsk’s ire for supporting the Belarusian democratic opposition.
In recent months, Lithuania has also received a growing number of migrants illegally crossing its border from Belarus, with the European Commission criticising “the instrumentalisation of migrants by the Belarusian regime”.
Since the beginning of this year, around 4,000 migrants, mostly from Iraq and Syria, have crossed into Lithuania from Belarus, an increase of 81% compared to last year. In the same period, officers from the border guard in Poland’s Podlasie Province bordering Belarus have detained 451 migrants.
Last month, during a meeting with his Lithuanian counterpart, Polish President Andrzej Duda promised Poland’s support in securing Lithuania’s border with Belarus.
Both Warsaw and Vilnius have provided sanctuary to Belarusian democratic opposition leaders. Poland has also given asylum to hundreds of others Belarusian refugees fleeing repression in their home country.
Main image credit: Straz Graniczna/ Twitter
Agnieszka Wądołowska is deputy editor of Notes from Poland. She has previously worked for Gazeta.pl and Tokfm.pl and contributed to Gazeta Wyborcza, Wysokie Obcasy, Duży Format, Midrasz and Kultura Liberalna
