Poland stops Iraqi and Syrian migrants crossing from Belarus

EU accuses republic of deliberately allowing asylum seekers into the bloc

Thirty-eight migrants tried to enter Poland from Belarus on Sunday and Monday morning, Polish authorities said.

On Sunday, 30 people, mainly from Iraq, Sri Lanka, Syria and Turkey, were stopped from making the journey. Early on Monday morning, eight Iraqis were intercepted after they cut through a barbed wire fence.

The EU has accused Belarus of encouraging thousands of migrants, mainly from the Middle East and Africa, to illegally cross into Poland and Lithuania since last summer in a “hybrid attack” to destabilise the bloc.

Brussels claims Belarus’s President Alexander Lukashenko is orchestrating migrant movements in response to EU sanctions on Minsk after a controversial 2020 election and clampdown on opposition.

At least 12 migrants have died in the bogs and forests of the border area and conditions have worsened in the winter cold.

Poland has fortified its border with Belarus using razor wire and increased the number of guards on the frontier. But it has also begun the construction of a $394 million, 5.5 metre high wall that will stretch over 180 kilometres of its eastern border with Belarus to deter migrants from crossing.

“This construction of the physical barrier will end in June, but remember that the electronic barrier will be constructed in parallel and will be fully operational by September,” said Polish Border Guard spokeswoman Anna Michalska last week.