Polish border guards apprehended almost three times as many people illegally crossing the border from Belarus at the weekend as in the whole of last year. Poland’s government accuses Minsk of using migrants as “living weapons” in a “hybrid war”.
Between Friday and Sunday, 349 migrants were detained, bringing the total this year to almost 900. Across all of 2020, the figure was just 120. The majority of those detained are from Iraq and Afghanistan, a border guard spokeswoman told Dziennik Gazeta Prawna.
Lithuania has this year seen an even greater surge of illegal crossings, with over 4,000 migrants arriving. Yesterday, Poland and Lithuania’s presidents issued a joint declaration calling for “urgent regional measures” to “protect the EU’s external border”.
On Friday, the Lithuanian government approved a draft bill allowing for the erection of a metal fence topped with barbed wire along its border with Belarus. Yesterday, Lithuania’s interior minister, Agne Bilotaite, issued an order granting each illegal migrant willing to return to their homeland with €300.
Latvia, another of Belarus’s neighbours, is also planning to strengthen its border infrastructure and send armed forces to the frontier, following reports that 160 migrants were detained over recent days, according to Polskie Radio.
Last week, Poland’s deputy interior minister, Maciej Wąsik, claimed that Belarus is deliberately letting migrants cross the border as retaliation against Warsaw for offering refuge to Belarusian athlete Krystina Tsimanouskaya. Both Poland and Lithuania have drawn Minsk’s ire for supporting the Belarusian democratic opposition.
For more on Poland's decision to offer Tsimanouskaya sanctuary, see our recent report https://t.co/dHjHXaDjhi
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These “illegal migrants are let through into Poland and Lithuania by Belarusian border guards” as part of a “hybrid war” that Minsk is waging against the EU, said Wąsik.
The rising number of migrants at the Polish-Belarusan border may also be the result of Lithuania’s tougher policies. Under a ministerial order that came into force last week, Lithuanian border guards are not letting the migrants onto their territory, but rather transporting them to official border crossing points or to embassies.
Last weekend, 230 migrants attempted to enter Lithuania from Belarus but not a single one was let in, according to the Polish Press Agency (PAP). “This new tactic is working,” assessed Antanas Montvyda, from the national border guard, talking to Lithuanian radio LRT.
Those who are detained crossing into Poland are tested for Covid-19 and officers try to determine their identity, nationality and age. After processing and following a court order, they are transported to guarded holding centres.
Main image credit: Straż Granica
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
