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Poland reports record number of daily illegal attempts to cross border from Belarus

In total, since August, over 10,000 migrants have attempted to illegally cross the Polish border from Belarus territory

WARSAW, October 1. /TASS/. The Polish Border Guard has uncovered a record number of daily attempts to cross its border illegally from Belarusian soil, the border guard’s Twitter reported on Friday.

"The Belarusian-Polish border [has registered] 529 illegal crossing attempts. Eighteen Iraqi citizens and four other people have been detained for helping [illegal migrants to cross the border] — a citizen of Lebanon, a citizen of Poland, and two citizens of Ukraine," the report says. "In September, 7,535 attempts were made to cross the Polish-Belarusian border," the state service added.

In total, since August, over 10,000 migrants have attempted to illegally cross the Polish border from Belarus territory. Border guards foiled the bulk of such attempts. More than 1,200 illegal migrants were taken into custody and placed in special centers in Poland. The authorities found that about 50 of them posed a potential security threat to the country since they are involved in terrorist organizations and criminal gangs.

The Polish authorities hold the Belarusian leadership responsible for what is happening, which, according to Warsaw, delivers migrants to their country and then sends them across the border to Poland, Lithuania, and Latvia in order to spark a migrant crisis in Europe.

At the end of May, Lukashenko stated that his country served as a barrier to human trafficking to neighboring countries. However, considering the West’s ramped-up political pressure, Minsk has had second thoughts about continuing to block the flow.