Polish Ministry of National Defense: migrants try to cross the border on pontoons
Migrants from Belarus try to swim to Poland on pontoons across the border river to get to the Lubelskie Voivodeship. The Deputy Minister of National Defense of Poland Voychech Skurkevich told Radio Zet.
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“We see very dangerous cases. Migrants concentrate on the banks of the Bug. Attempts to cross the border on pontoons have been recorded, ”he said.
Skurkevich also reported on the problems in the vicinity of Bialowieza. “Border crossings are storming groups of up to several hundred people,” the deputy minister explained.
Earlier, Poland expressed its readiness to conduct a dialogue with Russia on the migration crisis at the border, but with Belarus it will speak only at a technical level. Polish Foreign Minister Zbigniew Rau noted that talks about relations between Minsk and Warsaw should be conducted only with the Belarusian opposition.
The migration crisis on the border of Belarus and the European Union began at the end of May. Large groups of illegal migrants from Africa and the Middle East began to storm the borders of Lithuania, Poland and Latvia in the hope of obtaining asylum. It was alleged that Minsk uses its national tour operator Tsentrkurort to transport migrants to the EU borders and makes money on it.
The crisis escalated on November 16, when some refugees tried to break into Poland. In response, the Poles used special means, as a result of the incident, soldiers, migrants and journalists were injured. Then the President of Belarus Alexander Lukashenko gave an order to place illegal immigrants in the logistics center.