Poland has seen a significant increase in the number of attempts to enter the country unlawfully through Belarus this year, according to a high-ranking government official on Thursday.
Between January 1 and December 15, 2023, Poland’s Border Guard registered 30,000 unauthorized attempts to cross the border, said Czesław Mroczek, the Deputy Minister of the Interior, during a parliamentary debate in Warsaw.
This marks a sharp rise from the approximately 26,000 attempts recorded in 2023, compared to over 15,000 in 2022, Mroczek added.
Poland and the European Union have accused Belarus’ authoritarian leader, Alexander Lukashenko, of orchestrating the influx of migrants to the EU’s eastern border as a form of pressure on the West.
In the summer of 2022, Poland fortified its border with Belarus with 5.5-meter-high barbed wire fences and an electronic surveillance system.
Many of the migrants stranded at the border hope to continue their journey into the EU and refuse to return to their home countries.
The EU has accused Lukashenko of attempting to destabilize the bloc in retaliation for the economic sanctions the EU has imposed on his regime.
Belarusian officials have denied these accusations.
