Interior minister recommends extension of emergency state at the border

"I will make recommendations to the Council of Ministers on the extension of the state of emergency," Mariusz Kamiński told a news conference he held together with Defence Minister Mariusz Błaszczak and Border Guard Chief Tomasz Praga.

The minister said the situation at the Polish-Belarusian border was tense and mass attempts of illegal crossing were recorded - 9,400 since August. He added that 8,200 of those attempts were successfully prevented.

"We have approx. 1,200 illegal immigrants detained in locked centres. Many of them don't have any documents, many have false documents," Kamiński explained.

Furthermore, he said that "there has a number of provocation incidents involving Belarusian uniformed services, as well as mass attempts of violating the integrity of our borders". He added that these weren't movements of refugees, but a mass, illegal migration" sparked by political causes. "We are dealing with a very serious problem."

"The people who try to cross our border aren't facing any danger whatsoever in Belarus. They are staying there fully legally and have been in fact invited by the Lukashenko regime, who uses them as a weapon and ammunition to achieve his political goals," the minister argued.

The European Union member state declared the emergency at the start of September over a surge in migration that Polish and EU officials blame on Belarus. But Poland's nationalist government has drawn criticism from rights groups over its treatment of migrants, five of whom have died on the frontier.

During the briefing, Polish officials showed material which they said were text messages and other images linked to Islamic extremism found on some of the migrants' electronic devices.

Reuters could not independently confirm the veracity of the messages or images.

Poland's opposition and human rights groups have accused the ruling right-wing nationalist Law and Justice (PiS) party in the past of stoking prejudice against immigrants for political gain.

During the 2015 migrant crisis, the PiS leader said refugees from the Middle East could bring disease and parasites to Poland.

Most of the current migrants have come from Iraq, Afghanistan and Africa.

Minister Kamiński said the government was not trying to stigmatise the migrants but merely presenting evidence it had uncovered to show that some migrants crossing the border could pose a threat to national security.

He said that Polish security services had found links to extremism in 50 out of 200 migrants questioned.

Poland and the EU have accused Belarus of encouraging migrants from Iraq, Afghanistan and African countries to cross the EU's external borders to put pressure on the bloc over sanctions Brussels has imposed on Minsk over rights abuses.

However, the European Commission and rights groups fear that Poland is forcing migrants at the border back into Belarus, violating their right to seek asylum and putting them at greater risk.