Belarus migrants: Poland fears armed border escalation
Poland has warned of a possible “armed” escalation on its border with Belarus, fearing its neighbor may try to provoke an incident with hundreds of migrants seeking to cross into the EU.
Extra troops have been deployed after desperate crowds tried to cut a barbed-wire border fence.
Poland, the European Union, and Nato say Belarus is orchestrating the problem, a claim denied by its disputed leader.
Poland says it is shutting a major border crossing at Kuznica.
EU and Nato members Poland, Lithuania, and Latvia have all seen a surge in the number of people trying to enter their countries illegally from Belarus in recent months. Many of them have come from the Middle East and Asia.
Overnight temperatures at the border have slumped below zero and several migrants have already died in recent weeks. Activists say the migrants – many of them young men but also women and children – are being used as pawns in a political game between non-EU Belarus, run by authoritarian leader Alexander Lukashenko, and its neighbors.
Polish government spokesman Piotr Muller said up to 4,000 migrants had gathered near Poland’s eastern border and told reporters that at some point they expected “an escalation… which will be of an armed nature”.
The head of Poland’s national security department, Stanislaw Zaryn, said the migrants were under the control of Belarusian armed units. “Belarus wants to cause a major incident, preferably with shots fired and casualties,” deputy foreign minister Piotr Wawrzyk said earlier.
The Belarus defense ministry rejected the Polish statements as unfounded and unsubstantiated and accused Warsaw of violating agreements by moving thousands of troops to the border.
The EU alleges the Belarusian leader is provoking the influx in retaliation against the bloc’s sanctions.
SOURCE: NEWS AGENCIES