Poland approved deploying an additional 2,000 soldiers to the Belarus border to address the surge in migrant crossings, amid concerns of provocations from Belarus and allegations of orchestrated migration influx by Belarus and Russia to destabilize the region.
Poland will send an additional 2,000 troops to reinforce its eastern border with neighboring Belarus, a deputy interior minister said Wednesday, as a record number of migrants try to cross.
The troops are slated to be deployed within two weeks and will join the 2,000 soldiers stationed near the border.
Poland has recently warned of the threat of provocations from Belarus and the potential dangers posed by the Wagner mercenary group based there.
Warsaw has also accused Belarus and Russia of orchestrating a new migration influx into the European Union to destabilize the region.
Wasik on Wednesday added that the Belarusian services stage all attempts of illegal crossings into Poland through that route.
“If, on the other side, we had real border guards and not smuggling officers, these crossings wouldn’t exist at all,” Wasik said.
According to the Polish border guard, 19,000 migrants have tried to enter Poland from Belarus this year, compared to 16,000 during all of 2022.
Last month alone, more than 4,000 migrants tried to cross the border.
Miroslava Salazar with APF
