Belarus's Border Service Says Poland Pushing Back Migrants Again

Poland's border guards have again pushed back migrants to Belarus through the border between two countries, the Belarusian border service said on Friday

MINSK (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 17th March, 2023) Poland's border guards have again pushed back migrants to Belarus through the border between two countries, the Belarusian border service said on Friday.

"Poland continues to throw back migrants. Belarusian border officials have registered two such cases in the recent days," the State Border Committee of Belarus said on its Telegram channel.

At night, Polish soldiers allegedly used service vehicles to bring two groups of foreign nationals to the border barrier with Belarus. After that, 14 refugees were violently pushed out of Poland through a gate for animals, the statement said.

Such actions of Poland, when people in vulnerable situation are deliberately left in a dangerous situation, often lead to their death because of hypothermia and exhaustion, the statement said, adding that the legal insecurity of refugees in countries on the European Union's external border makes possible indiscriminate violence against them and is caused by the absence of reaction by international organizations and the EU's human rights institutions.

A crisis with illegal migrant crossings on Belarus' borders with its EU neighbors Latvia, Lithuania and Poland has continued since 2021. The EU has accused Belarus of orchestrating the crisis and encouraging the migrant flow.

Belarus' border guards have reported over 4,500 illegal pushbacks of refugees from across the border and 10 deaths as a result in 2023.