“The number of illegal attempts to cross the border from Belarus to Poland has increased again. Yesterday, ie August 28, there were 130 such attempts," the Border Guard (SG) wrote on Twitter on Saturday. It said that 40 foreigners had been detained and the remaining 90 attempts thwarted. “It looks like a busy weekend,” the SG added.
SG spokeswoman Anna Michalska told the state-run PAP news agency on Saturday that among the detainees there were 14 nationals of Syria, 5 of Somalia and a group of twenty whose identities were still being confirmed. "After the procedures are completed, the detainees will be transferred to guarded centers for foreigners run by the border service," Michalska added.
Amid a migrant crisis, the SG earlier said it had averted nearly 3,000 illegal attempts to cross from Belarus since the start of August. "Over 2,000 attempts have been thwarted, while almost 900 illegal immigrants have been detained," the SG announced on Twitter on Wednesday.
The announcements come as a rapidly growing number of illegal migrants has appeared at the boundary between Belarus and the European Union over the past few months.
Both Poland and the Baltic states of Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia have accused Minsk of supporting the unlawful entry of these people into their countries.
(mo)
Source: PAP