Poland summons Belarusian diplomat over migration

The Polish Foreign Ministry summoned the Belarusian charge d’affaires on Thursday to discuss the deteriorating situation on the Polish-Belarusian border.

Łukasz Jasina, the ministry’s spokesman, said in a statement that the conversation with Aleksander Czesnowski also concerned "the threats and risk created by Belarus' actions and its refusal to let a Polish humanitarian convoy enter Belarus."

Poland, Lithuania and Latvia have accused the government of Alexander Lukashenko, the Belarusian president, of bringing migrants from the Middle East and then pushing them across the EU border in an effort to destabilise the EU in retaliation for sanctions that Brussels has imposed on Minsk.

Jasina said Czesnowski had refused to acknowledge any provocations against Poland carried out by Belarusian services.

"He denied Belarus has conducted any actions against Poland, failed to comment on the Polish humanitarian convoy having not been allowed to enter the country neither did he comment on many other issues," Jasina said.

Poland has tried twice to send a humanitarian convoy to help migrants stuck on the Belarusian side of the border, but requests for entrance have been ignored or rejected by Belarus.

Last Wednesday, Belarusian Foreign Ministry spokesman Anatoly Glaz said that Poland’s proposal to send aid convoys "is politicking and populist rhetoric, unrelated to reality and the situation."

Jasina also said that Poland will continue to release evidence to Belarus and the public confirming the provocative behaviour of the Belarusian security services on the border.

"We don't refrain from presenting evidence," he said. "The way Belarus chooses to respond is its choice," he added.

Czesnowski also attended talks at the Foreign Ministry last week, after shots were fired close to the border, allegedly by the Belarusian security services.

Poland introduced a state of emergency along the Belarusian border owing to the increasing numbers of migrants crossing into Poland from Belarus.

Since August, the Polish Border Guard has thwarted over 10,000 illegal attempts to cross the Polish-Belarusian border, and 1,500 migrants have been detained and taken to refugee centres.