Polish Border Guard Suffers Head Injury As Migrants Storm Polish-Belarusian Border

The Polish Border Guard said on Thursday that one of its soldiers sustained a head injury as migrants from across the border in Belarus attempted another storming the night before

WARSAW (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 20th January, 2022) The Polish Border Guard said on Thursday that one of its soldiers sustained a head injury as migrants from across the border in Belarus attempted another storming the night before.

"On January 19, 38 people tried to illegally cross the border. On the border section near (the village of) Melnik, a group of 30 foreigners tried to cross the border with the support of the Belarusian services. Citizens of Iraq, Guinea, Pakistan, Syria and India have been detained," the border guard said, adding that "one Polish soldier was hit on the head with a stone and hospitalized."

In 2021, the Polish border guard recorded almost 40,000 attempts at illegal border crossing, which is several dozen times more than a year earlier.

The monthly number grew from 3,500 in August to 7,700 in September, and 17,400 in October, before decreasing to 8,900 in November.

Migrants were offered assistance to voluntarily return home, but around 2,000 were still present on the Belarusian side of the border in late December.

Thousands of migrants have gathered at Belarus' borders with Poland and other neighboring EU countries last summer, hoping to reach Europe through the Belarusian border. In response to illegal crossing attempts, Poland boosted security in border areas. Warsaw blamed Minsk for fueling the crisis to get back at the EU for imposing sanctions, which the Belarusian government denied.