Belarus border wall helping stem migrant pressure: Polish PM
As more migrants attempt to cross illegally into Poland from Belarus, a wall on the shared border is helping stem migration pressure, the Polish prime minister said on Wednesday.
Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki.PAP/Artur Reszko
Mateusz Morawiecki wrote in a Facebook post that his government was right to build the wall.
He said that “60 foreigners tried to cross illegally into Poland from Belarus” on Tuesday, including “an aggressive group of 20 people” who threw stones and tree branches at Polish border guards, Polish state news agency PAP reported.
Morawiecki added that „one member of the group pointed what looked like a smoothbore weapon at our guards.”
The Polish prime minister said: “Today it is clear that the border wall built by the Polish government of the Law and Justice (PiS) party is highly necessary. And that those who had opposed its construction were very wrong. Polish borders are sacred and we are going to defend them.”
Morawiecki thanked border guards, soldiers and policemen for their service and stressed that each of them „has the full support of the Polish state.”
Earlier on Wednesday, Poland’s Border Guard agency reported that 60 foreigners had attempted to enter the country illegally from Belarus over the previous 24 hours, the PAP news agency reported.
In the border village of Dubicze Cerkiewne, a group of 20 foreign nationals, some of them masked, threw stones and tree branches towards Polish officials, and one of the group pointed a smoothbore weapon at the patrol, the news agency added.
They also fired slingshots, damaging a Border Guard car, according to officials.
So far this year, there have been more than 19,300 attempts to cross illegally into Poland from Belarus, the Border Guard said.
Also on Wednesday, the agency announced it had ordered 150 thermal vision monoculars for border officials from the state-run Polish Armaments Group (PGZ), the PAP news agency reported.
Under the PLN 7.3 million (EUR 1.6 million) deal, Poland’s border personnel will receive the equipment by December 27 to “protect the external frontier of the European Union,” the Border Guard agency said in a statement.
(pm/gs)
Source: PAP, strazgraniczna.pl
