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Posted: Nov 11, 2021/04:36 CST
Updated: 11/11/2021 / 4:46 AM CST
FILE – Polish Police and Military Police stand behind the border fence as migrants from the Middle East and elsewhere gather at the Belarus-Polish border near Grodno, Belarus, on Monday, November 8, 2021. The crisis on the eastern borders of Poland, Lithuania and Latvia is fueling calls for the EU to finance the construction of something it never wanted to build: fences and walls on the border. (Leonid Shcheglov / BelTA via AP)
WARSAW, Poland (AP) – Security forces in Poland on Thursday were tasked with securing the country’s eastern border amid a migration war with Belarus, while protecting the capital and other cities during Independence Day demonstrations organized by far-right groups that have been violent in the past.
Poland has been protesting since the summer against the increasing number of refugees and migrants trying to enter the country from Belarus. The Polish-Belarusian border is also part of the European Union’s eastern border, and the EU is accusing the Belarusian regime of promoting illegal migration to make the West unstable.
The political stalemate worsened this week as a large group of asylum seekers, most of them from the Middle East, arrived at the border. Some tried to force their way and hundreds, possibly thousands, remain in makeshift camps in freezing temperatures, adding to humanitarian concerns.
Bartosz Grodecki, a deputy interior minister, said in an interview with Polsat on Thursday morning that there had been further attempts to cross overnight, including one with a group of 150 migrants.
Grodecki said Polish authorities believe there could be another violent attempt to enter the country on Thursday evening. Most of the police officers who are supposed to guard the independence march in Warsaw will be sent to the border immediately afterwards, he said.
The West has accused Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko of encouraging Middle Eastern migrants to travel to his country and sending them to EU members Poland, Lithuania and Latvia to take revenge against the bloc for sanctions. The sanctions were imposed on the authoritarian regime because Lukashenko has cracked down on internal dissent since his controversial re-election in 2020.
The EU is now examining the role some airlines have played in transporting migrants and refugees to the bloc’s front door. The Polish government has pointed a finger at what they believe to be a Turkish role – which Ankara denies.
The Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlüt Cavusoglu spoke on Wednesday in a nightly phone call with his Polish counterpart about the crisis on the Belarusian-Polish border. He denied “baseless allegations” that Turkey and its national airline, Turkish Airlines, were flying migrants to Belarus, Turkish officials said.
“Minister Cavusoglu expressed his regret over the attempts to portray Turkey as part of the problem when it is not a party to the problem and the unfounded allegations against Turkey and Turkish Airlines,” a statement from the Cavusoglu office said.
Cavusoglu also told Polish Foreign Minister Zbigniew Rau that the Polish public should be “properly informed” of allegations against Turkey and suggested that a Polish technical team visit Turkey.
There are now reports that Iraq will help bring back its citizens trapped in Belarus.
Iraqi Deputy Migration Minister Karim al-Nuri told Sputnik, a Russian state news agency, that Iraq will make it easier for its citizens to return from Belarus if they so choose through the embassy in Russia.
“We will transport those who want to return. We will make this possible through the Iraqi embassy in Russia as Iraq does not have an embassy in Belarus, ”the official said.
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Follow AP’s migration coverage at https://apnews.com/hub/migration
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