In Poland, the buffer zone on the border with Belarus has been extended for another 90 days. The document enters into force on December 10.
This was reported by the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Poland.
They say that precisely because of the buffer zone, which was introduced on June 13 this year, the number of attempts to illegally cross the Polish-Belarusian border decreased by approximately 41%.
From June 13 to December 5 this year, almost 11 200 such cases were recorded. And in the same period last year, there were more than 19 000 of them.
From January 1 to December 5, 2024, Polish border guards charged 585 people with organizing and assisting illegal migration, including citizens of Ukraine (274), Poland (82), Belarus (50), and Georgia (30). Already 153 people have chosen preventive measures.
So far, border guards have issued 297 permits to stay in the buffer zone.
The expansion of the buffer zone will also contribute to limiting the activities of smuggling groups responsible for illegal migration, the Polish Ministry of Internal Affairs says.
The situation on the border between Belarus and Poland
In 2021, after the introduction of sanctions against Belarus for the falsification of presidential elections, the suppression of the opposition and protests, a stream of migrants from the countries of the Middle East rushed to the border of the European Union (Poland, Lithuania, Latvia).
In the fall of 2021, migrants stormed the borders and threw stones at the border guards. The Belarusian authorities brought them truckloads of crushed stone and distributed gas canisters, blinded the Polish border guards with laser pointers and strobe lights, and tried to destroy the border fence.
This year, the situation on the Polish-Belarusian border worsened again. Illegal migrants regularly try to enter Poland illegally. At the beginning of June 2024, a Polish border guard died after being stabbed on the border with Belarus — a migrant threw a stick with a blade at the end. It was after this incident that Poland introduced a buffer zone on June 13, 2024 — it covers a section of the Polish-Belarusian border more than 60 kilometers long.
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