Poland claims:

Migration via Belarus organized by paramilitaries

Polish officials at the Polish-Belarusian border

(Bild: APA/AFP)

Poland's Prime Minister Donald Tusk has defended his country's planned crackdown on migrants at the border with Belarus. Tusk told the daily newspaper "Gazeta Wyborcza" (Wednesday edition) that Poland's eastern border was not dealing with refugees who had arrived there spontaneously and by chance. "These actions are organized in a paramilitary way," he explained.

"We are increasingly observing that groups are being organized in Syria and Iran that are not only being trained to cross borders illegally, but also to behave in a way that we in NATO must describe as dangerous," the Polish Prime Minister continued. There is a whole system of recruitment via Russian and Belarusian diplomatic missions in several countries, Tusk continued.

Criminals taken from prisons to the Polish border
According to information from Syria, criminals and people with links to terrorist organizations are being released from prisons and brought to the Polish-Belarusian border. This is also an external border of the EU.

Migrants camp in front of the Polish border.

(Bild: APA/AFP )

Right to asylum temporarily suspended
Poland wants to temporarily suspend the right to asylum for irregular migrants at the border with Belarus with a new law. The draft law is to be presented in a few weeks. On Tuesday, Tusk's center-left government passed a paper on migration that also provides for a temporary restriction of the right to asylum.

Many entry attempts despite five-metre-high fence
Poland and the EU accuse Russian President Vladimir Putin and his ally, Belarusian ruler Alexander Lukashenko, of bringing migrants from crisis regions to the EU's external border in an organized manner in order to exert pressure on the West. Despite the construction of a fence more than five meters high and an electronic surveillance system, migrants attempt to cross the border irregularly on a daily basis. Since the beginning of the year, the border guard has registered almost 28,000 such attempts.

President Duda fears negative consequences
Poland's head of state Andrzej Duda criticized the restriction of the right to asylum planned by Tusk's government. "This will not serve to seal off the border and curb illegal migration," said Duda in a speech to parliament. Rather, the planned law will prevent representatives of the Belarusian opposition, who are persecuted by Lukashenko's regime, from being granted asylum in Poland. "This is obviously a fatal mistake," criticized Duda.

Tusk replied that there had not been a single incident where a Belarusian opposition member had attempted to cross the border without permission. "Mr. President, you can't think of anything more stupid," said Tusk.