Poland wants more EU sanctions on Belarus, PAP sources say

Poland asked Brussels to impose more sanctions on Minsk at a meeting of EU ambassadors in Brussels on Wednesday, PAP has learnt from its sources.

Poland's permanent representative at the EU, Andrzej Sados, informed his EU peers about the current situation along Poland's border with Belarus.

According to PAP sources, Sados told the EU ambassadors that Poland wanted the EU to continue to exert pressure on Belarus, including through sanctions. He advocated for extending the sanctions imposed on Belarus due to Minsk's instrumental treatment of the migration issue.

Sados also reported increased migration pressure from Belarus since August.

According to PAP sources, Poland indicated that there had been over 8,000 attempts to cross the border illegally in 2021, including 3,500 in August and over 4,000 in September. Since August 8, Polish border guards have managed to foil 6,750 such attempts, while 1,500 people have managed to cross the Polish border illegally from Belarus.

On September 13, three people, reportedly migrants, were found dead after crossing into Poland from Belarus. The cause of death was hypothermia.

Sados said the responsibility for the deaths lies with the Belarusian regime of Alexander Lukashenko, which is using migrants for political ends.

Poland offers aid to foreigners detained on the Polish territory and currently some 1,400 people are being kept in detention centres, Sados supposedly told the EU ambassadors.

Poland and the Baltic countries have accused the Belarusian government of pushing migrants, most of them from the Middle East, across their borders in an effort to destabilise both its neighbours and the EU.

To stop the flow of migrants into the country, Poland recently erected a fence along its border with Belarus and declared a state of emergency in some border regions.