Army to back Border Guard on Polish-Slovak border

Poland will deploy troops to support the Border Guard as it launches checks on the border with Slovakia, the Polish defence minister has announced.

On Tuesday morning, the Polish interior minister, Mariusz Kaminski, told a press conference that Poland would introduce temporary controls on the Slovak border from midnight as the number of illegal migrants in Slovakia increased by nearly 1,000 percent year on year.

Later in the day, Mariusz Blaszczak, the defence minister, took to the X platform to announce that "The Polish Army will support the Border Guard on the border with Slovakia."

He said the operational troops, territorial defence forces and engineering troops will be sent to the border.

"Soldiers will have the same powers as the Border Guard... including carrying out inspections," Blaszczak added.

The Polish government says its decisions to step up controls are aimed to curb the traffic of migrants across the country, who are mostly heading towards Germany.