Polish security forces arrested around 100 migrants overnight from Wednesday to Thursday.
These arrests took place while these people were trying to cross the border with Belarus, announces the Polish Ministry of Defense.
"A group of about a hundred migrants has been arrested by the Polish services," the ministry said, accusing the Belarusians of having "forced the migrants to throw stones at the Polish soldiers in order to divert their attention".
"The attempt to cross the border took place a few hundred meters away," near the village of Dubicze Cerkiewne, the ministry said.
Video released by the Defense Ministry shows Polish soldiers surrounding a large group of migrants crouching on the ground at night in a forest near a barbed wire fence.
Tonight there was an attempt, led by 🇧🇾Belarusians, to illegally cross the border in Dubicze Cerkiewne.
A group of about 100 migrants was detained by the 🇵🇱Polish services.
https://t.co/XHIrydDCXC
- Poland MOD 🇵🇱 (@Poland_MOD) November 18, 2021
A few thousand migrants, mostly from the Middle East, have been camping for days in freezing temperatures along the Polish border on the Belarusian side in the hope of being able to enter the European Union.
The West accuses Minsk, the Belarusian capital, of having orchestrated this influx since the summer, in response to Western sanctions against Belarus.
These were taken in the wake of the repression, in 2020, of a historic opposition movement.
Warsaw, the Polish capital, as well as Belarus' two other European neighbors, Lithuania and Latvia, refuse to accept these thousands of migrants.