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Polish Border Guard: Record number of illegal entry attempts from Belarus

29.09.2021 13:30
Amid a mounting migrant crisis, Poland's border service has said it has averted a record number of attempts to illegally cross from Belarus.
Photo:
Photo:PAP/Artur Reszko

“Yesterday, the Border Guard recorded a record 473 attempts to illegally cross the Belarusian-Polish border," the Polish Border Guard announced on Twitter on Wednesday.

It added: "Border guards thwarted all these attempts. It is a time of extremely intense work for us."

On Tuesday, Poland’s president said he would ask lawmakers to approve the government’s request to extend a state of emergency on the country's eastern border with Belarus by two months, amid the migrant surge, news agencies reported.

After hosting a late-afternoon meeting with top security officials, Duda told a news conference that the 60-day extension seemed “justified at this moment in time.”

Poland and fellow EU members Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia have accused Belarus' strongman leader Alexander Lukashenko of organising a wave of illegal migrants seeking to enter the bloc as part of what officials have called a "hybrid war."

At the start of this month, Poland declared a state of emergency in parts of two regions along its border with Belarus in a bid to stem the flow of migrants from countries such as Iraq and Afghanistan.

(jh/gs)

Source: PAP