Warsaw: Poland said on Monday that hundreds of migrants in Belarus would descend to its border to forcibly enter the EU member, which NATO had hit Minsk as an intentional tactic.
“A group of a few hundred people are heading to the Kuznica border crossing. One group has already tried to cross the border, but border guards have arrested some of these people,” Polish government spokesman Piotr Muller told reporters in Warsaw.
Müller accused “persons associated with Belarusian special services” of organizing the rape of migrants. He added that a crisis unit of the Polish government would meet later on Monday.
NATO proposed that Belarus’s alleged tactical use of migrants is “unacceptable” to pressure the EU and said it was concerned about the “escalation” on the border with Poland.
The European Union accuses Belarusian fort Alexander Lukashenko of facilitating a wave of migrants and refugees, mainly from the Middle East, trying to enter the EU in retaliation for the sanctions imposed by Brussels.
Read More: Actor Chadwick Boseman Rushed to Emergency Room in a Wheelchair With Noticeable Weight Loss
Minsk has reportedly issued special visas that allow migrants to fly to Belarus.
After Belarus, the imposed sanctions diverted a flight between EU capitals in May to arrest a dissident journalist and his girlfriend on board and for brutal repression against the opposition.
Lukashenko has denied the charges.
So, Poland has sent thousands of soldiers to the border area, imposed a state of emergency in the region with a media disruption, built a barbed wire fence and approved the construction of a wall.
Stuck in the middle, migrants often report that Belarusian officials forced them to cross the border and then the Polish authorities forced them to return to Belarusian territory. According to Polish daily Gazeta Wyborcza, at least ten migrants have died in the region so far, including seven on the Polish side of the border.
