Migrants at the border. Request for international protection shouted through a loudspeaker

A provisional camp with immigrants has been set up at Polish-Belarusian border in Usnarz Górny, in northeastern province of Podlasie. The refugees are being watched by the Polish Border Guard and Belarusian military. They were refused entry to Poland.

The Belarusian authorities in Minsk have been accused of deliberate attempts to push migrants from Iraq and Afghanistan through the borders with Lithuania, Latvia and Poland, which are also Schengen Zone borders, in order to put pressure on the EU in response to the sanctions the bloc has imposed on the Belarusian regime.

"There are no groups of camping migrants on the Polish side. The group we've all seen is at the Belarusian side. We've contacted Belarusian Border Guard and asked for reaction in case those people needed any help. Belarusian Border Guard promised to offer such help," a spokesperson for Polish Border Guard, Anna Michalska told TVN24.

She added that the group has become smaller in the last two days as some people were taken by Belarusian Border Guard.

Michalska also said that there were had been nearly 2,000 attempts of illegal border crossing in August alone and 780 have been detained. "All of those people were offered help, located in special centres, tested for coronavirus, and some placed in quarantine. They could apply for international protection. They have food, clothes and access to medical care," the spokesperson said.

Attorney Mikołaj Pietrzak, who represents the migrants, also arrived at the border.

"Together with our fellow-attorneys from Warsaw, a legal counsel is also here with us, we've offered to represent the people who have been held under open sky for over a week now, in cruel, inhuman conditions, and demanded international protection granting procedure to be launched. This includes granting them refugee status," he told TVN24.

"The Border Guard has been pretending for a few days now not to hear these people asking for international protection. So we did this today through a loudspeaker in the presence of the media. There's no doubt that the Border Guard officers have heard the request by now. It's their legal duty to launch a procedure of granting all these people international protection," he stressed.

Poland's Defence Minister Mariusz Błaszczak said on Friday, that the country was facing "a coordinated operation targeting Poland and the EU". "The aim of those trying to spark crisis is to lead to another wave of migration and target the Polish border, which is also an EU border. We're prepared to hold this attack," he said.

Deputy Foreign Minister Paweł Jabłoński told reporters that "the migrants are at the territory of Belarus, and Belarus is fully responsible for them". "A few weeks ago, Lithuania was put in the same situation," he added.

"Poland is not responsible for this situation," he stressed.

Twelve people, including three children, crossed Polish-Belarusian border and got stuck in swamps in the Białowieża Forest. Border Guard officers helped them. A helicopter, boats and special ladders were used to take the migrants into safety.

Two people required medical assistance, one had to be carried on a stretcher. The group of illegal immigrants consisted of 11 citizens of Iraq and one Egyptian.

They were placed in a locked facility in Narewka.