Hundreds of refugees on Poland’s border with Belarus in sub-zero temperatures

Poland announced the thwarting of what it described as “several attempts” of migrants to enter the country across the eastern border with Belarus, warning that thousands of migrants are still on their way to that border area.

Videos showed hundreds of migrants trying to cross a barbed wire fence.

On Monday, the Polish government called for an emergency summit to coincide with the deployment of 12,000 border guards in the area, which witnessed attempts to cross the border.

Poland accused Belarus of pushing migrants to the border, describing this as aggression on its territory.

Poland was not the only country to complain about this, as it was joined by Lithuania and Latvia, which confirmed that there has been a sharp increase in the number of people trying to enter those three countries illegally from Belarus in the past few months.

It is noteworthy that most of the migrants trying to sneak from Belarus to Poland, Latvia and Lithuania came from the Middle East and Asia.

The European Union also accused Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko of facilitating the flow of migrants in the context of the escalation in response to the sanctions imposed on his country.

Poland, which is facing criticism for refusing entry to migrants and refugees across the border, has erected a barbed wire fence in an attempt to control the large numbers of people trying to sneak.

The Polish border guards said that the market is closing the border crossing linking it with Belarus in Koznytsa, starting from Tuesday morning.

Migrants live in this area in harsh living conditions to the extent that they can be deadly, which has raised concerns about their safety in this place where the temperature drops to sub-zero levels.

Since they were expelled from Poland under immediate measures and Belarus refuses to allow them to return, the migrants remain stuck in Poland’s forests in sub-zero temperatures.

The BBC’s Paul Adams in Poland spoke to Barwa Nasreddin Ahmed, the brother of an Iraqi immigrant stuck at the Polish border with his wife and three children.

This Iraqi family arrived in Minsk, the capital of Belarus, last month.

He added that what increases their suffering is the scarcity of food and drink in that border area, stressing that the move from Minsk was planned by migrants through social media, but it is likely that Belarus was pushing them towards the border as well.

“People know that Lukashenko is taking advantage of them, but they have no future”, Ahmed said.

The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) expressed its concern about the escalation on the border with Poland, expressing its readiness to “maintain the safety and security of the region”.

Meanwhile, Lithuania has moved troops towards the border with Belarus in preparation for a possible further influx of migrants while considering the possibility of declaring a state of emergency.

Developments escalated last Monday after videos were posted on social networking sites showing a line of people, including women and children, walking towards the Polish border with Belarus.

Other videos showed a number of migrants being led by armed people in khaki uniforms.

He accused Piotr Wavczyk, Poland’s deputy foreign minister, of trying to orchestrate a major accident near Koznica-Białowice, a village near the Polish border, warning of an “attempted mass infiltration across the border”.

Another video posted on social media showed crowds of migrants apparently trying to slip through a barbed wire fence, but were stopped by Polish border guards.

Pavo Soloch, head of Poland’s National Security Council, predicted a “renewed attack” by hundreds of migrants over the course of the night.

In response to the developments that occurred last Monday, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen called on European Union member states to impose more sanctions on the regime in Belarus, which she accused of “endangering people’s lives”.

Meanwhile, the United States urged Lukashenko to “immediately stop the campaigns that involve planning the illegal flow of migrants and pushing them into Europe through his country’s borders”.

The Belarusian border guards told local media that more than 2,000 refugees are gathering in front of the Polish border, suggesting that they are “going to the European Union where they want to apply for protection”.

Belarusian border guards accused Poland of using unjustified means to push back people seeking protection.