Poland has recorded a significant increase this year in attempts to enter the country without authorization through Belarus, a senior government official said on Thursday.
Between January 1 and December 15, the Border Guard recorded 30,000 such attempts, said the Deputy Minister of the Interior, Czesław Mroczek, in a parliamentary debate in Warsaw.
In 2023, the total figure has risen to around 26,000, while in 2022 it was more than 15,000, according to Mroczek.
Poland and the European Union accuse Belarusian authoritarian leader Alexander Lukashenko of sending migrants to the European Union's external border in order to increase pressure on the West.
In the summer of 2022, Poland has secured the border with Belarus with 5.5-meter-high border fences, as well as an electronic surveillance system.
Most of these migrants stuck at the border hope to continue their journey to the EU and refuse to return to their home countries.
The European Union accuses Lukashenka of trying to destabilize the bloc as a result of the economic sanctions that the European Union has imposed on his government.
Belarusian officials reject the accusations./ REL (A2 Televizion)
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