Czechs say sending soldiers to Poland "no longer necessary"

Utrudnienia dla mediów na granicy. Czy władza boi się dziennikarzy?

Źródło: TVN24

The Czech Republic will hold off on sending up to 150 soldiers for now to help Poland protect its border with Belarus after the migrant situation stabilised, the Czech defence minister said on Monday.

The number of attempted crossings into Poland by migrants travelling via Belarus from the Middle East or Africa has fallen from highs seen in November. The European Union accused Minsk of engineering a crisis, but Belarus denies that. The Czech government had approved last week a plan to send soldiers to help Poland with building and repairing barriers and other support work. It was awaiting parliamentary approval but Defence Minister Lubomir Metnar said on Monday that the mandate would not be debated for now. "The planned deployment of Czech soldiers to Poland is not necessary yet because the situation on the border with Belarus has been stabilised," Metnar said on Twitter, adding his Polish counterpart Mariusz Blaszczak had informed him of this. The Czech Republic would have been the third outside country to send personnel to the Poland-Belarus border, after fellow NATO military alliance members Britain and Estonia.

Video published on Monday (December 13) by the Polish Ministry of Defence on Twitter shows road construction in progress on the Polish side of its border with Belarus.

Additional support for maintenance of these roads near the Poland-Belarus border fence was provided by allies such as Estonia, according to a tweet posted by Polish officials.

The Polish border guard said there had been 88 attempts to cross the border on Sunday (December 12).

The migrant crisis on the Belarusian border has dragged on for months.

Humanitarian agencies say as many as 13 migrants have died at the border, where many have suffered in a cold, damp forest with little food or water as winter sets in.