Poland has again registered a growing number of attempts to enter the country illegally via Belarus this summer.
Between June and August, border guards noticed 13,800 such attempts, the Interior Ministry announced on Friday in Warsaw. In the same period last year, there were 7,500.
Poland and the European Union accuse Belarusian leader Alexander Lukashenko of organizing the transport of migrants from crisis regions to the EU’s external border to exert pressure on the West.
In the summer of 2022, Poland secured its border with Belarus with a 5.5-metre-high fence and an electronic surveillance system. This is also an EU external border.
Polish border guards count as illegal border crossings cases in which migrants have crossed the fence or a border river and are encountered by border guards on the Polish side.
However, as the border fence is also located on Polish territory, cases in which migrants were spotted directly at the fence but have not crossed the barrier are also counted.
Poland, a member of the EU and NATO, has a border with Belarus, an ally of Russia, that is around 400 kilometres long.
Due to the continuing tense situation, Poland’s interior ministry extended the validity of the restricted zone along this border by a further three months until December 4.
The restricted zone is mostly 200 metres deep, but in a few places it is up to four kilometres deep. Only security forces and residents are allowed to be there, with journalists and aid organizations requiring a permit.