Poland’s government calls crisis talks as hundreds of migrants march to border from Belarus

The migration crisis on Poland’s border with Belarus looked set to escalate further today as footage reportedly showed hundreds of people in Belarus marching towards a crossing under the supervision of Belarusian authorities.

In response, Poland’s prime minister called crisis talks with the heads of the defence and interior ministries as well as the president. Representatives of Poland’s government warned of attempts by Minsk to provoke a “major incident” and vowed that the group would not be allowed to cross the border.

A video published this morning from the road near the Belarusian village of Bruzgi showed a large group apparently walking towards Poland.

Plans for a mass push on the border had been predicted by commentators after large numbers of migrants reportedly gathered in Minsk and were transported to the Polish border yesterday.

“The largest attempt by force to enter Poland by force has just begun,” wrote Stanisław Żaryn, the spokesperson for Poland’s security services. Earlier he said information coming from the area was “very disturbing”.

“On [the Belarusian] side there is a desire to provoke a major incident, ideally with shots and fatalities,” Piotr Wawrzyk, a deputy foreign minister, told Polskie Radio. A deputy interior minister, Maciej Wąsik, wrote on Twitter that “they will not pass”.

In response to the developing incident, Poland’s Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki called crisis talks with interior minister Mariusz Kamiński and defence minister Mariusz Błaszczak. The deputy prime minister overseeing their ministries, Jarosław Kaczyński, who is also the head of the ruling party, also attended the meeting, along with president Andrzej Duda.

The Belarusian border guard confirmed that there was a large group of people moving towards the border, but blamed the Polish authorities for their “indifference and inhuman attitude” that “prompted the refugees to take such a step of despair”.

“The Belarusian side is taking the necessary measures to ensure the smooth functioning of international communication channels, as well as the safety of people moving along the highway,” they claimed on social media site Telegram.

Later videos showed that members of the group sitting in the forest near the border, apparently under the supervision of Belarusian soldiers, as well as attempts to break down the border fence.

The Polish authorities see the incident as the latest in a series of provocations by Minsk, which has orchestrated a growing surge of crossings over the border by migrants and refugees – mainly from the Middle East, Asia and Africa – as part of a “hybrid war” against it and the European Union with Russian backing.

“We know that there is going to be an assault on our border and we are prepared for it,” Ewelina Szczepańska of the border guard told Onet. “There are reinforced border guard forces, police and army on the border.”

“We can see from recordings posted on the internet that the migrants are walking towards the border crossing at Kuźnica. We do not know whether they will storm the border at this point or ultimately spread out and do so over a longer stretch of the border,” she added.

A video posted by Nexta, an independent Belarusian media outlet, claimed that the people at the border were Kurds who had planned the march themselves and were planning to attempt to cross the border legally before they were driven into the forest by Belarusian officials.

On Friday, Poland’s defence ministry reported that a Belarusian soldier had tried to shoot a flare gun at Polish forces while other armed Belarusians had destroyed border fencing. That came after Poland had summoned the Belarusian chargé d’affaires for talks after three unidentified uniformed people armed with rifles were seen entering Polish territory.

So far this year, there have been more than 30,000 attempts to illegally cross into Poland from Belarus, according to the Polish border guard. That compares to just 120 in the whole of last year. Of these, 17,300 happened in October, almost 7,700 in September, and 3,500 in August.

Independent verification of and reporting on the situation at the border on the Polish side is almost impossible because of the state of emergency operating in the area, which bars non-resident civilians (including the media and NGOs) from entering the area.

Main image credit: Facebook/Halgord Omar Presse

Ben Koschalka

Ben Koschalka is a translator and senior editor at Notes from Poland. Originally from Britain, he has lived in Kraków since 2005.