Migrants double pressure on Poland-Belarus border, interior minister says
Poland's interior minister has said that the migrant pressure on the Poland-Belarus border has doubled since last year.
Tomasz Siemoniak confirmed to Polish public Radio One on Tuesday that the increase in border pressure is a political decision by Minsk and Moscow, stating that 90 percent of the trespassers have Russian visas.
"They are cynically being used by both regimes as an element of attack on Poland," he said.
On Monday night border guard reported that one of their colleagues sustained injuries after being hit with a wooden log by an aggressive crowd of people on the other side of the border. The incident occurred near the Bialowieza town close to the Polish-Belorussian border. The guard was hospitalized and his life is not in danger, border services said.
The minister also said that "the rules of engagement will be changed.
"Riot police units will be brought in and border guard and soldiers will be trained to deal with aggressive crowds. We will not allow for Polish soldiers to be targets of brutal acts of aggression."
A Polish soldier was stabbed by a migrant trying to cross the border into Poland from Belarus last Tuesday. At that time a deputy defence minister described his condition as serious.(PAP)
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