About 50 migrants broke through border barricades from Belarus on Saturday evening and entered Poland. The Polish police let us know on Sunday local media. Polish customs report that all people who reached Poland were eventually detained by border guards and returned to Belarus. A total of 223 attempts were made to illegally cross Europe’s eastern border on Saturday.
Thousands of migrants, mostly from the Middle East, are currently staying in Belarus on the border with Poland, hoping to make the crossing to the European Union (EU). Polish customs are expecting even more massive crossing attempts in the coming days. Tension in the border area has been mounting for days. Polish soldiers are said to have been pelted with stones and several deaths in the area have also been linked to the border conflict. The migrants, including women and children, have been staying in makeshift camps for days with temperatures hovering around freezing.
Belarus is responsible for the situation, according to EU countries. They think the country is helping migrants across the Polish border out of discontent and to put pressure on sanctions from Brussels. The EU also accuses Russia of flying in at least two thousand migrants in the border area. Russia is an ally of Belarus. Moscow and Minsk deny those allegations. Russian President Vladimir Putin cites Western wars as the cause of the problem. Putin said on Sunday that he would help with the situation at the border with Poland, Reuters news agency reported.
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