Poland Ready For Worsening Migrant Situation At Belarusian Border - Prime Minister

WARSAW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 17th September, 2021) Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki said on Friday that his country expects the migration crisis on the border with Belarus to get worse, and is ready to reinforce and protect it.

"We are expecting further destabilization attempts. We think that the threats might increase at our borders," Morawiecki said following a meeting with his Lithuanian counterpart, Ingrida Simonyte.

The Polish official added that Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko "turned migration into a weapon," and that Poland would protect its borders through cooperation and physical reinforcements.

Simonyte, in turn, labeled the migration from Belarus as "organized by a specific agent with precise purposes" and spoke of the need to strengthen the actual border.

Lately, Lithuania, Latvia and Poland have reported an increasing number of illegal border crossings from Belarus and accused Minsk of contributing to the migration crisis. Since the beginning of September, Poland is said to have recorded over 1,700 attempts to enter the country illegally from the neighboring state. In response, the Polish president has declared a state of emergency in border regions, and army and police have been deployed to the area.

The European Union blames Minsk for using migrants as a "hybrid weapon" against the bloc after it imposed sanctions on Belarus. Lukashenko said that Minsk could no longer suppress migration to neighboring countries. In addition, the Belarusian Border Guard Committee has repeatedly said that the security forces of Lithuania, Latvia and Poland have forced migrants back onto the Belarusian territory.