Warsaw accuses the Belarusian ruler Lukashenko of bringing refugees from crisis regions to the EU’s external border in an organized manner. There is no end in sight to the conflict.
In view of the continuing influx of migrants, the Polish parliament has extended the state of emergency on the border with neighboring Belarus.
The MPs of the Sejm voted on Thursday evening for an extension of another 60 days, as the Polish media reported early Friday morning. Previously, President Andrzej Duda had made the corresponding request.
During the debate in the Sejm, Paweł Soloch, head of the National Security Bureau, reported that almost 7,000 migrants tried to illegally cross the border in this area in September alone. In September of the previous year there were around 120.
With his decision to extend the state of emergency, the “pressure orchestrated by the Belarusian regime to destabilize the EU” is to be counteracted, according to a tweet by the Sejm.
The government in Warsaw has accused the Belarusian ruler, Alexander Lukashenko, of bringing refugees from crisis regions to the EU’s external border in an organized manner. Lukashenko announced at the end of May that Minsk would no longer prevent migrants from continuing to travel to the EU – in response to tightened Western sanctions against the former Soviet republic.
Aid organizations suspect that Poland’s border guards are sending most of the migrants back to Belarus. This can hardly be checked because of the state of emergency at the border, as journalists and helpers are not allowed into the area.
EU Interior Commissioner Ylva Johansson urged Polish Interior Minister Mariusz Kaminski to admit journalists in the field at a meeting on Thursday evening in Warsaw. There was a long and open discussion, said Johansson afterwards. The Belarusian approach requires a decisive response from the EU. But: “We respect fundamental rights.” A spokesman for the Brussels authority said Friday that Johansson had also expressed concern over reports of possibly illegal pushbacks of migrants by Polish officials.
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