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Because of migrants: Poland is sending more soldiers to the Belarusian border

2021-10-07T15:57:27.463Z


Poland is strengthening its border with Belarus: the Ministry of Defense is sending hundreds of additional forces to repel migrants. Military helicopters are said to be on patrol.


Enlarge image

Barbed wire on the Polish side of the border with Belarus

Photo: KACPER PEMPEL / REUTERS

Warsaw is relying on even greater isolation in the dispute over migrants from crisis regions such as Afghanistan, Syria or Iraq who want to go to Poland via Belarus: Defense Minister Mariusz Blaszczak announced on Wednesday an increase in the number of soldiers to support border guards to 3,000 - an increase of 3,000 600 compared to last week.

"Securing the border with Belarus is currently the most important task," wrote Blaszczak in the short message service Twitter.

"In the coming days, military helicopters will be flying air patrols along the Polish-Belarusian border."

EU accuses Lukashenko of retaliation

The parliament in the capital Warsaw had only last Thursday extended the state of emergency on the border with the neighboring country by two months until the end of November.

On Tuesday, Poland's border guards said they had arrested 13 migrants.

Lithuania and Latvia have also been complaining about the increased arrival of migrants, especially from the Middle East, to their borders with Belarus for the last few months.

The EU is assuming retaliation by the Belarusian ruler Lukashenko for sanctions decisions taken in Brussels.

It is believed that the Belarusian authorities are bringing migrants into the country in a targeted manner and smuggling them to the borders with the eastern EU states.

Brandenburg's Minister of the Interior: "Vile and inhuman"

The authorities in Belarus accuse the West, however, of causing chaos in the regions, which is why people are now looking for a better life.

More migrants come to Germany across the border from Poland.

According to the Brandenburg Interior Ministry, almost 400 people from Belarus were registered at the German-Polish border in August.

In September there were already six times as many.

Brandenburg's Interior Minister Michael Stübgen (CDU) made sharp allegations against the ruler Lukashenko.

The fact that people freeze to death and starve to death on their way "is accepted by the dictator in Minsk approvingly," said Stübgen on Wednesday when visiting the initial reception facility of the state of Brandenburg in Eisenhüttenstadt.

That is "vile and inhuman".

"We are dealing with the worst kind of human trafficking here," said the Minister of the Interior.

Police picked up 400 migrants on the border with Poland at the weekend

On Wednesday night, twelve more Syrians were picked up in Küstrin-Kietz, Brandenburg.

The group and a 48-year-old Croatian smuggler were taken into custody.

On Tuesday, federal police discovered, among other things, four Iraqis on a federal road in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania and twelve Iraqis and a man from Turkey in a Saxon border community.

At the weekend, the federal police picked up almost 400 migrants on the German-Polish border, 251 in the Brandenburg border area with Poland alone.

A spokesman for the federal police spoke of a "new weekend high".

The European Commission, but also Federal Foreign Minister Heiko Maas (SPD) would have to ask "how long they want to watch this go on," said Stübgen.

“I expect that Lukashenko's human trafficking will finally be put to an end.” In Eisenhüttenstadt, those responsible “could only cure the symptoms of this wave of refugees”.

anr / dpa / AFP

Source: spiegel

All news articles on 2021-10-07

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