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Polish police officers and border guards in the border area with Belarus
Photo: Leonid Shcheglov / dpa
Two larger groups of refugees have apparently broken the border from Belarus to Poland: Several dozen migrants managed to destroy fences near the villages of Krynki and Bialowieza and to cross the border, the Polish news agency PAP reported on Tuesday evening.
She cited the local broadcaster Bialystok.
The station quoted a spokeswoman for the border guard as saying that in both cases fences and barriers had been forcibly torn down.
Some of the refugees have been returned to Belarus;
others are still in Poland.
There are hundreds of people on the Belarusian side.
According to the Polish authorities, the refugees had received food from Belarusian organizations, it said.
The EU member Poland has stationed thousands of soldiers at the border to prevent a breakthrough at the facilities.
The Belarusian ruler Alexander Lukashenko called on Tuesday to let people through: They did not want to settle in Poland, but above all in Germany, he said in an interview.
The EU accuses Lukashenko of targeting people from crisis countries such as Syria, Afghanistan, Libya and Iraq in order to smuggle them towards the EU border.
It is presumed that the rulers are seeking revenge for the sanctions that the EU has imposed because of the repression of civil society and the democratic opposition.
On the EU's external border between Poland and Belarus, thousands of people are now hoping to come to the West under extremely adverse conditions.
Lukashenko had denied the allegations and held international smuggling networks responsible for organizing people's trips.
Heiko Maas for further sanctions
On the night of Wednesday, the Acting Foreign Minister Heiko Maas had declared: "Nobody should be allowed to participate in Lukashenko's inhumane activities with impunity." This applies to countries of origin and transit, but also to airlines that enable people to be transported to Belarus.
The European Union is ready to "draw clear conclusions here."
Maas also spoke out in favor of further direct EU sanctions against Belarus.
"Lukashenko has to realize that his calculations are not working out." You can read more about Maas' explanation here.
Martin Schulz for a common EU migration policy
The former President of the EU Parliament, Martin Schulz, meanwhile, called for a common European migration policy.
He said that on Tuesday evening during a visit to the Russian capital Moscow.
Belarus is pursuing a "harmful strategy" to put the EU under pressure.
"This is at the expense of the people who are brought there."
Schulz was President of the European Parliament from 2012 to 2017.
He now heads the Friedrich Ebert Foundation, which is close to the SPD.
aar / dpa
