Commander of the Polish Border Guard, Tomasz Praga, has requested the Ministry of National Defense to deploy an additional one thousand soldiers to the Polish-Belarusian border. Deputy Minister of Internal Affairs of Poland, Maciej WÄ…sik, made this announcement during a media briefing.
He emphasized that the situation at the border is extremely complex, and the illegal crossing of migrants is being organized by Belarusian border services.
"The migration pressure on the border with Belarus continues to increase. I want to emphasize that recruitment [of migrants] through smugglers and intelligence services from Belarus and Russia is evidently taking place in more than 40 countries, as we have already documented so many nationalities on the Polish-Belarusian border," said WÄ…sik.
According to him, the largest single attempt to cross the border this year involved 93 people, of whom 88 were detained by the Border Guard.
"Polish patrols are daily attacked with stones, firecrackers, bottles, and branches. The aggression is enormous. Belarusian services, which should be guarding the state border, have turned into a criminal organization that is involved in organizing illegal migration and making huge profits from it. Nothing happens there without the knowledge and consent of Minsk," added Tomasz Praga, the Commander of the Border Guard.
According to his information, illegal migrants gather at or near border posts, and when the Belarusian side deems it appropriate to attempt an illegal border crossing, these people are driven directly to the border line.
"These groups are very aggressive, act in an organized manner, and are guided solely by Belarusian services. By this time, 19,000 people have already made such attempts. For the whole previous year, it was less than 16,000. In July of this year, we reached a record when almost 4,000 people tried to enter Poland," added Praga.
