Poland Says Large Group of Migrants Gathering at Belarus Border Crossing

[Rogue Valley]

Poland Says Large Group of Migrants Gathering at Belarus Border Crossing - The Moscow Times

A large crowd of migrants was gathering at a shut border crossing between Poland and Belarus on Monday, videos released by Poland's border guards and defense ministry showed.

www.themoscowtimes.com

11/15/21
A large crowd of migrants was gathering at a shut border crossing between Poland and Belarus on Monday, videos released by Poland's border guards and defense ministry showed. "More and more groups of migrants are being brought to the Kuznica border crossing by Belarusian forces," the defense ministry said on Twitter, as videos appeared to show hundreds of migrants in front of lines of Polish police and soldiers. Deputy Interior Minister Maciej Wasik said there were "thousands of migrants" at the crossing. "Polish forces are prepared for any scenario," he said. "We expect that there will be an attempt to forcefully push through the border. At the moment all our forces that we could direct there are being directed there," she said. The videos could not be independently verified as Poland has banned journalists from the immediate border area under state of emergency rules brought in as part of efforts to block migrants. Poland says that between 3,000 and 4,000 migrants, most of them from the Middle East, are currently camped out along the border in a crisis that has pitted Western countries against Belarus and its ally Russia.

The migrants are really in a pickle. Winter weather on the Poland/Belarus border can be brutal. They are being forced towards Poland by Belarusian police with truncheons, and repelled by Polish police and concertina wire.

But they knew when they boarded the airplane to Minsk that they were going about this illegally and allowing themslves to be trafficked by Belarus dictator Alexander Lukashenka.

Belarus Says Working to Return Migrants as EU Readies Sanctions - The Moscow Times

Belarus is working to repatriate migrants massed on its border with Poland, President Alexander Lukashenko said on Monday, apparently aiming to defuse the crisis ahead of an EU meeting over new sanctions on the ex-Soviet country. Migrants have been trying to cross from Belarus into EU member...

www.themoscowtimes.com

11/15