Hundreds of migrants and refugees are on their way to the Polish border, accompanied by armed Belarusians, a spokesman for the Polish authorities said.
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New information shows that the group is closely controlled by armed Belarusians. It is they who decide which direction the group is going, says spokesman Stanislaw Zaryn on Monday.
He has also posted videos on social media showing hundreds of people on the Belarusian side of the border.
– We are ready for any course of events, writes Polish Minister of the Interior Mariusz Kaminski on Twitter.
The Belarusian journalist Tadeusz Giczan has also posted a video showing a large crowd on their way to the Polish border.
Aftenposten has verified that the video was filmed at Bruzgi in Belarus, about one kilometer from the Polish border crossing Kuznica.
Other videos show migrants pushing against Polish border fences, while Polish security forces stand ready on the other side.
There have recently been a number of reports that migrants and refugees are being pushed across the border into Poland by Belarusian security forces, and then being pushed back to Belarus by Polish border guards.
Poland has recently increased the number of police officers and soldiers in the border area to 12,000.
Trying to cross
As a result, the latter has begun to build a fence along the border. It has created conflict. Polish authorities believe the EU should take the bill.
EU President Ursula von der Leyen has said it is irrelevant.
A temporary fence has already been set up by Polish border guards to keep migrants out. Polish border guards published a video of the crowd on Monday morning:
“Migrants make their first attempt to cross the border,” write the border guards.
Poland is not alone in having a recent influx of refugees and migrants across the border.
Belarus also borders Lithuania. Here, too, the situation is about to escalate.
Considering state of emergency
The Lithuanian authorities are now preparing for large crowds to try to cross their border. The country’s Minister of the Interior Agne Bilotaite said this on Monday morning.
Authorities are sending more troops to the border. They are also considering introducing a state of emergency. Poland has had it since September.
The state of emergency has made it strictly forbidden for anything other than military personnel to approach the border. As a result, it is very demanding to get information about what is happening to migrants and refugees.
Pushing migrants back across the border, so-called “pushbacks”, was originally contrary to the international human rights convention. In October, a new bill received the green light from the Polish authorities. It allows the migrants to be pushed back.
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