On Tuesday, Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki on Tuesday called on the president to impose a state of emergency on the Belarusian border, with dozens of migrants trying to cross the Polish border illegally every day.
“The President has decided to issue an order imposing a state of emergency in the area indicated [vyriausybės] at the request, said Blazey Spychalski, a spokesman for the presidency.
He added that the order had now been submitted for publication in the State Gazette and handed over to the Seimas Marshal. According to the Polish constitution, the introduction of a state of emergency must be approved by parliament.
If the state of emergency is confirmed, it will last for 30 days on a 3 km wide section along the border with Belarus. A total of 183 settlements fall into this area.
Any mass gatherings in this area would be prohibited and visitors would be required to have identity documents.
“The situation on the border with Belarus is a constant crisis,” Morawieckis told reporters earlier this week. “That’s why we decided to offer this solution to the president.”
Earlier, Polish Deputy Interior Minister Maciej Wasik reported that “between 100 and 250 people try to move to Polish territory every day.”
According to him, Poland began construction of a 2.5 m high fence in a stretch of about 180 km near the Belarusian border. The total length of the Polish-Belarusian border is 418 kilometers.
The fence is built on a stretch where illegal migrants usually try to enter Poland. There were also an additional 2 thousand sent. military.
Polish border guards also laid cutting wire barriers in some sections of the border in August.
Mr Morawieckis, in turn, accused Minsk of blackmailing.
Poland, Latvia and Lithuania do not allow migrants seeking asylum, and Belarusian border guards do not allow them to return to Belarus, which often leads to conflict situations.
The European Union believes that migrants are being directed at it in revenge for Lukashenko’s increasingly tough bloc sanctions against Belarus.
Poland calls it a “hybrid attack” against the entire bloc. Mr Morawiecki said on Tuesday that Mr Lukashenko was trying to “introduce a destabilizing element into the territory of our countries”.
A group of about 30 migrants trapped at the border, believed to be Afghans, are treated differently in Poland.
The government is on a strict line, preventing them from entering Poland and seeking asylum. However, this position is strongly criticized by the liberal opposition, non-governmental organizations and the Catholic Church.
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