Poland's Ministry of National Defence has published a new video from the Polish-Belarusian border. "A large group of Belarusian officers are approaching the migrant campsite in Kuźnica," the ministry informed in social media on Tuesday. Hundreds of migrants camped out near the Belarus border with Poland on Tuesday in freezing overnight temperatures as the Polish Prime Minister visited the border and officials warned tension could increase in coming days.
The Ministry of National Defence published a new footage on Tuesday morning. "A large group of Belarusian officers are approaching the migrant campsite in Kuźnica," the ministry said in a tweet.
Poland and other European Union member states accuse Belarus of encouraging illegal migrants from the Middle East, Afghanistan and Africa to cross the border into the EU in revenge for sanctions slapped on Minsk over human rights abuses. "The Belarusian regime is attacking the Polish border, the EU, in an unparallelled manner," Polish President Andrzej Duda told a news conference in Warsaw. "We currently have a camp of migrants who are blocked from the Belarusian side. There are about 1,000 people there, mostly young men. These are aggressive actions that we must repel, fulfilling our obligations as a member of the European Union."
NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said in a tweet on Tuesday he had spoken with President Duda about the migrant crisis and reassured that "NATO stands in solidarity with Poland and all our Allies in the region".
Around 800 people are currently camped out on the Belarusian side of the fence, the Border Guard told Reuters. Poland's special services said as many as 12,000 migrants may currently be in Belarus.
A spokesman for Poland's special services, Stanisław Żaryn, said Belarusian security personnel were "firing empty shots into the air, simulating dangerous events" to further destabilise the situation at the border.
"We also know the Belarusian authorities are helping migrants to destroy the border barriers. We see how they bring them tools to cut wires... to destroy the fence," he added.
Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki visited the area early on Tuesday to show support for the thousands of additional soldiers, police and border guards deployed there. Footage published by the Polish police on Tuesday showed migrants' tents and campfires on the Belarusian side of the barbed wire fence. Poland's Border Guard said it had registered 309 attempts to cross the border illegally on Monday and 17 people, mainly Iraqis, had been detained.
Video clips have shown hundreds of migrants walking towards the Polish border near Kuźnica village and some trying to breach a fence using spades and other tools.
Polish authorities shut an official border crossing with Belarus at 0600 GMT on Tuesday near where thousands of migrants tried to push through the day before.
Poland said it had deployed additional soldiers, border guards and police, while neighbouring Lithuania said it might introduce a state of emergency on its border with Belarus.
Polish police said on Twitter on Tuesday that the night was calm, although a rock was thrown at a police car, after the Monday confrontation.
A Polish official said tension could increase in coming days and additional international help could be accepted if that were the case.
Deputy Foreign Minister Paweł Jabloński, speaking to private Radio Zet, restated that for now, Poland did not need additional help from the EU border guard Frontex.
"Belarus must stop putting people’s lives at risk. I call for approval of extended sanctions, possible sanctions on third country airlines involved. We also want to prevent a humanitarian crisis and ensure safe returns," EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said in a tweet on Tuesday.
The U.S. State Department on Monday said it is concerned with disturbing images and reports from the border of Poland and Belarus and called on the government of Belarus to immediately halt its campaign of orchestrating and coercing irregular migration flows across its borders. "As long as the regime and Belarus refuses to respect its international obligations and commitments, undermines the peace and security of Europe and continues to repress and abuse people seeking nothing more than to live in freedom, we will continue to pressure Lukashenko and will not lessen our calls for accountability," State Department spokesman Ned Price told reporters.
U.N. expresses concern, Kremlin praises Belarus
European Union ambassadors at the United Nations are expected to meet to discuss the tension on Tuesday, the PAP news agency reported Poland's U.N. ambassador as saying.
The U.N. refugee agency UNHCR expressed concern on Tuesday about hundreds of migrants camped out near the Belarus border with Poland and called for an end to vulnerable peole being used as political pawns.
"We are very alarmed by the scenes that we are seeing from the Belarus-Poland border," UNHCR spokesperson Shabia Mantoo told a U.N. briefing, adding that the agency was particularly worried about the fate of women and children in the region.
"We have repeatedly said that using refugees, asylum seekers and migrants to achieve political ends is unacceptable and must stop," she added.
Humanitarian groups accuse Poland's ruling nationalists of violating the international right to asylum by pushing the migrants back into Belarus instead of accepting their applications for protection. Poland says its actions are legal.
The Kremlin said on Tuesday it was concerned by events on the Belarus-Poland border where migrants have been gathering to try to cross into Poland and praised specialists from its close ally Belarus for what it said was their responsible work there.
In a conference call with reporters on Tuesday, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Moscow was in close touch with Minsk on the subject and called on all sides to act responsibly.
The Belarusian state news agency Belta quoted the interior minister to say that no migrants had broken the law.
A statement by the Belarusian defence ministry said Poland had violated bilateral agreements by deploying additional troops at the border and said Warsaw was not interested in constructive solutions.
Autorka/Autor: gf
Źródło: TVN24 News in English, tvn24.pl, Reuters, PAP
Źródło zdjęcia głównego: MON