WARSAW: Poland will deploy an additional 2,000 soldiers to reinforce its eastern border with neighbouring Belarus, the deputy interior minister Maciej Wasik said on Wednesday, as a high number of migrants try to cross.
Maciej Wasik said that this will not be a reinforcement of one thousand but of two thousands soldiers. The move was approved by the defence minister on the request from the national border agency for reinforcement.
The forces are slated to be stationed within two weeks and will join the two thousand soldiers already deployed near the border, according to AFP.
Poland warns of threats
Warsaw has recently warned of the threat of provocations from Belarus and possible dangers posed by the Russia’s Wagner mercenary group based there.
It has also accused Russia and Belarus of orchestrating a new migration influx into the European Union (EU) in order to destabilise the region.
Wasik said that all attempts of illegal entry into the country through that border route are planned by the Belarusian services.
He added that if on the other side we had real border guards, instead of smuggling officers, these crossings would not exist at all.
The Polish border guard said that 19,000 migrants have tried to enter Poland from the neighbouring Belarus so far this year, compared to sixteen thousand during all of 2022.
In July alone, more than four thousand migrants tried to cross the border.
