Tensions at border between Poland and Belarus, dozens of migrants arrested

According to the Polish Minister of Defense, small groups of migrants are trying to cross the border illegally between the two countries.

Le Monde with AFP

In the midst of the diplomatic crisis between Minsk and the European Union (EU), Poland announced, Wednesday, November 10, that it has made more than fifty arrests of migrants massed at the border with Belarus , where do you multiply, according to her, the attempts of crossing.

“In the last twenty-four hours, the police detained more than fifty people near Bialowieza after they illegally crossed the border,” said a spokesman for the regional police. According to him, two separate groups of migrants, some of whom fled after being arrested, are concerned.

Groups “which simultaneously attack the border”

“The situation is not calm,” said Polish Minister of Defense Mariusz Blaszczak on Wednesday on Polish radio. “While two days ago we had a large group concentrated near Kuznica Bialostocka and there was (…) an attempt to cross the border force, we now deal with smaller groups, though supplied, which simultaneously attack the Polish border in several places, “he said.

The Polish Minister of Defense also stated that Belarusian officials used the threat to force migrants to force the border.

In addition, Mariusz Blaszczak has tweeted Wednesday Two short videos of a shot which, according to him, come from an armed man in uniform on the Belarusian side of the border. The videos show a group of migrants, including children, standing near the border on the Belarusian side.

Służby Białoruskie Zastraszają Migrantów Oddając Strzały W ICH Obecności. https://t.co/gtvrw5xuyu//p>- my_gov_pl (@Ministerstwo Obrony Narodowej 🇵🇱)

sanctions against Minsk

The President of the European Council, Charles Michel, must speak Wednesday in Warsaw of the “EU Frontier Crisis” with Prime Minister Polish, Mateusz Morawiecki. Tuesday, Mr. Morawiecki accused Russian President Vladimir Putin, to be the “sponsor” of the wave of migrants trying to enter Poland from Belarus, ensuring that this “hybrid” attack was risk destabilizing the European Union .

Europeans have been accusing President Belarusse, Alexander Loukachenko, Ally of Moscow, to nurture the crisis by delivering visas to migrants to revenge the European sanctions against his country for his repression of the opposition since the presidential election of 2020.

For its part, the head of the Belarusian diplomacy accused, on Wednesday, the West of Orchestrating the ongoing migration crisis at the Polish border to impose new sanctions against Minsk. “In view of a fifth series of sanctions, of which they already speak to the west, the pretext used this time is the migration crisis caused by the EU and its border members of Belarus,” said Vladimir Makei, during A meeting with his Russian counterpart, calling for a “joint reaction” with Moscow.

m. Makei said he hopes for a “strengthened work” with Russia, its main ally, including “a common reaction” face “to the inamical acts” aiming for Belarus. The Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov has shown his support by asserting that Minsk and Moscow had strengthened “effectively their collaboration to counter a campaign against Belarus triggered by Washington and its European allies in international organizations”.

/Media reports.