Since last Friday, more than 500 foreign nationals have attempted to illegally enter Poland from Belarus, according to Polish border guards, who say this is one of the highest numbers in recent weeks.
The most attempts occurred on Sunday and Saturday: on each of those days, over 220 people tried to cross into Poland from Belarus.
Illegal migrants attempted to breach the Polish border along nearly its entire length in the Podlaskie Voivodeship.
In two incidents, Polish law enforcement officers stopped groups of several dozen people from breaking through. The migrants were reportedly very aggressive—throwing stones and branches and breaking windows in police vehicles. Most of those attempting to cross were citizens of Afghanistan, Pakistan, and several African countries.
Since the beginning of May, Poland has recorded more than 1,900 illegal border crossing attempts from Belarus.
It’s worth noting that the artificially induced migration crisis on Poland’s eastern border—and on the borders of the Baltic states—began in the summer of 2021, allegedly with the support of Belarusian authorities. This followed harsh reactions from those countries to repression in Belarus and the forced landing of a commercial flight in Minsk to arrest an opposition blogger.
Despite reinforced border protection, the problem has not disappeared entirely and periodically intensifies, affecting not only Poland but also Latvia and Lithuania.
