Warsaw, Aug 9 (AFP\/APP):Poland will send an additional 2,000 troops to reinforce its eastern border with neighbouring Belarus, a deputy interior minister said Wednesday, as a record number of migrants try to cross.<\/p>\n
“This will not be a reinforcement of 1,000 but of 2,000 soldiers,” Maciej Wasik told the PAP state news agency, adding that the move was approved by the defence minister following a request from the national border agency for extra manpower.<\/p>\n
The troops are slated to be deployed within two weeks and will join the 2,000 soldiers already stationed near the border.<\/p>\n
Poland has recently warned of the threat of provocations from Belarus and potential dangers posed by the Wagner mercenary group based there.<\/p>\n
Warsaw has also accused Belarus and Russia of orchestrating a new migration influx into the European Union in order to destabilise the region.<\/p>\n
Wasik on Wednesday added that all attempts of illegal crossings into Poland through that route are staged by the Belarusian services.<\/p>\n
“If on the other side we had real border guards, and not smuggling officers, these crossings wouldn’t exist at all,” Wasik said.<\/p>\n
According to the Polish border guard, 19,000 migrants have tried to enter Poland from Belarus so far this year, compared to 16,000 during all of 2022.<\/p>\n
Last month alone, more than 4,000 migrants tried to cross the border.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Warsaw, Aug 9 (AFP\/APP):Poland will send an additional 2,000 troops to reinforce its eastern border with neighbouring Belarus, a deputy interior minister said Wednesday, as a record number of migrants try to cross. “This will not be a reinforcement of 1,000 but of 2,000 soldiers,” […]<\/p>\n
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