Poland says Belarus continues to bring migrants to its border by Reuters

WARSAW / VILNIUS (Reuters) – Poland accused Belarus of continuing to transport migrants to its border on Sunday, despite clearing camps near the border earlier this week as the country’s prime minister embarked on a tour of the Baltic states to seek help in the crisis.

Europe accuses Belarus of flying thousands of people from the Middle East and pushing them to cross into the European Union, which has been at odds with Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko since last year’s disputed elections.

Minsk, which denies promoting the crisis, cleared a migrant camp near the border on Thursday and began repatriating some people to Iraq in an apparent change in stance on the conflict that has erupted in a major East-West confrontation.

However, Poland says Minsk continues to truck hundreds of migrants to the border, where about 10 migrants are believed to have died with a cold winter.

“On Saturday … a group of about 100 very aggressive foreigners, brought to the border by Belarusian soldiers, tried to force their way into Poland. (Polish) services prevented the passage,” the border guard said on Twitter (NYSE :). Sunday.

There were 208 attempts by migrants to enter Poland from Belarus on Saturday, a few more than on Friday, but well below the 501 attempts recorded on Wednesday.

Neighboring Lithuania said it banned the entry of 44 migrants on Saturday, the lowest number in a week.

A dozen Iraqi migrants, speaking to Lithuania’s DELFI news portal on the Belarusian border on Saturday, said they had been forcibly taken away by military officials from Belarusian trucks and ignored their desire to return to Iraq.

Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki visited Estonia on Sunday morning to discuss the crisis with his partner Kaja Kallas. He will travel to Lithuania and Latvia on the same day.

“Today, on the eastern border of Poland, we are dealing with a new kind of war, a war that is a weapon of migrants, in which disinformation is a weapon, a hybrid war,” Morawiecki said, adding that more economic sanctions against Minsk are being discussed. .

A survey by SW Research, published in the Rzeczpospolita newspaper on Sunday, showed that 55.1% of Poles are concerned that the border crisis could turn into a regular armed conflict.

However, hundreds of people took part in protests on Saturday in Warsaw and near the Belarusian border to demand help for migrants.