Migrants gather on the Belarusian-Polish border in an attempt to cross it at the Bruzgi-Kuznica Bialostocka border crossing, Belarus November 15, 2021. — Reuters pic
SOKOLKA (Poland), Nov 15 — A large crowd of migrants was gathering at a shut border crossing between Poland and Belarus today, videos released by Poland’s border guards and defence ministry showed.
“More and more groups of migrants are being brought to the Kuznica border crossing by Belarusian forces,” the defence ministry said on Twitter, as videos appeared to show hundreds of migrants in front of lines of Polish police and soldiers.
Deputy Interior Minister Maciej Wasik said there were “thousands of migrants” at the crossing.
“Polish forces are prepared for any scenario,” he said.
The border guard service said that “illegal immigrants have been gathering at the border crossing since the morning” and “an attempt is being prepared to force through the border”.
It said some of the migrants “have so far been camping out at the border” nearby in the Belarusian village of Bruzgi.
The videos could not be independently verified as Poland has banned journalists from the immediate border area under state of emergency rules brought in as part of efforts to block migrants.
Poland says that between 3,000 and 4,000 migrants, most of them from the Middle East, are currently camped out along the border in a crisis that has pitted Western countries against Belarus and its ally Russia. — AFP