Refugees from the Middle East and North Africa get water in an illegal migrant camp on the Belarusian-Polish border in Grodno region, Belarus, November 9, 2021. /CFP
Polish police said Wednesday they had detained over 50 migrants who crossed into Poland from Belarus over the last 24 hours, and were still looking for others.
"Over the last 24 hours, police have detained over 50 people near Bialowieza after they illegally crossed the border," Tomasz Krupa, spokesman for the Podlaskie regional police department, told AFP, explaining that two separate groups of migrants were involved, some of whom had evaded detention.
Hundreds of migrants have set up camp along the border, where razor wire fences and Polish soldiers have repeatedly blocked their entry into the European Union.
"It was not a calm night. Indeed, there were many attempts to breach the Polish border," Polish Defense Minister Mariusz Blaszczak told broadcaster PR1.
Migrants are seen in an illegal migrant camp on the Belarusian-Polish border in Grodno region, Belarus, November 9, 2021. /CFP
Polish private radio RMF said around 200 people had tried to breach the border on Tuesday afternoon, and a second group of around 60 people had tried after midnight.
Blaszczak said all those who tried to cross were detained, and that the force of Polish soldiers stationed at the border had been strengthened to 15,000 from 12,000.
Poland and other EU states accuse Belarus of encouraging the migrants – from the Middle East, Afghanistan and Africa – to illegally cross the frontier in revenge for sanctions slapped on Minsk.
Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko's government denies engineering the migrant crisis and blames Europe and the United States for the plight of the people stranded at the border.
(With input from AFP, Reuters)