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Refugee crisis in Europe

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Minsk does not rule out Poland’s provocations to justify use of force against migrants

The State Border Committee explained that border service units act in the current situation "in accordance with the developing situation and have been beefed up"

MINSK, November 8. /TASS/. The Belarusian State Border Committee does not rule out provocations from Polish law enforcement agencies to justify the use of force against migrants, the committee wrote on its Telegram channel on Monday.

"Given the statements from the Polish officials about the concentration of armed forces and hardware close to the border, we don’t rule out provocative action from the Polish side aimed at justifying the use of physical force and non-lethals against refugees," the State Border Committee noted.

It explained that in the current situation, border service units are acting "in accordance with the developing situation and have been beefed up." It said that these measures "are primarily aimed to ensure security in the area where a group of refugees stays, to prevent provocations and crisis situations," it added.

"Foreign nationals staying near the border with Poland have stated their intentions to get into the territory of the neighboring state and exercise their right to filing a request for being granted the status of refugee in the European Union," it said. Minsk pledged that "all these people, women and children among them, don’t pose any threat to security and don’t behave aggressively". According to the State Committee, the refugees gathered in large numbers "in order to avoid Poland ousting them by force, as well as to draw the attention of the international community to Poland’s action regarding its failure to respect human rights."

Earlier in the day, Belarus’ State Border Committee said that around 1,000 refugees are moving across the country toward the border with Poland. The Polish side described the situation as an attempt at a mass border crossing by force.

More than 30,000 migrants have tried to cross the Polish-Belarusian border since the beginning of 2021. Warsaw has imposed a state of emergency in regions bordering Belarus. It regularly reinforces border troops, with numbers now up to 10,000. The Polish side has also built a barbed wire fence to be later replaced by a solid 5-meter tall wall equipped with sensors and other tools.

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