Polish forces securing border and cities on Independence Day
Source: AP
WARSAW, Poland (AP) — Security forces in Poland were tasked Thursday with securing the nation’s eastern border amid a migration fight with Belarus while also protecting the capital and other cities during Independence Day marches organized by far-right groups that turned violent in the past.
Poland has objected since the summer to the increasing number of refugees and migrants trying to enter the country from Belarus. The Poland-Belarus border is also part of the European Union’s eastern border, and the EU accuses the regime in Belarus of encouraging illegal migration to create instability in the West.
The political standoff took on a larger scope this week as a large group of asylum-seekers, most of them from the Middle East, arrived at the border. Some tried to force their way across, and hundreds, possibly thousands, remain in makeshift camps in freezing temperatures, deepening humanitarian concerns.
Bartosz Grodecki, a deputy interior minister, said in an interview with the Polsat broadcaster on Thursday morning that there were more attempted crossings overnight, including one involving a group of 150 migrants.
FILE - Polish police and military police stand behind the border fence as migrants from the Middle East and elsewhere gather at the Belarus-Poland border near Grodno, Belarus, Monday, Nov. 8, 2021. The crisis at the eastern frontiers of Poland, Lithuania and Latvia is fueling calls for the EU to finance the construction of something it never wanted to build: fences and walls at the border. (Leonid Shcheglov/BelTA via AP)
Read more: https://apnews.com/article/european-union-belarus-middle-east-poland-warsaw-191f626bc1b72622b59d3b0bf05d2058