Poland initiates military and security operations along Belarus border amid ongoing migration crisis
Poland's Defence Minister, Władysław Kosiniak-Kamysz, has announced that military operations will commence at the Belarusian border on August 1. According to the minister, these operations are aimed at safeguarding the country's borders. "There will be two operations — one for training and one for border security. The Safe Podlaskie mission will see the participation of up to 17,000 soldiers," he stated at a press conference with the Head of Poland's Ministry of Internal Affairs, Tomasz Siemoniak.
The Defence Minister added that police officers would be sent to the border to train soldiers. Meanwhile, Siemoniak revealed that the Ministry of Foreign Affairs is engaged in efforts to ensure that citizens from countries producing illegal migrants understand that crossing the Polish-Belarusian border illegally is a crime. "We are also continuing to exert political pressure on Belarus to abandon this practice," he added.
The current migration crisis, triggered by an influx of migrants from African and Middle Eastern countries passing through Belarus into Poland and the Baltic states, erupted in the autumn of 2021. EU officials accused Minsk of deliberately channeling refugees to the EU's borders in retaliation for Brussels' sanctions, imposed due to fraudulent presidential elections and the subsequent crackdown on protests in Belarus. Warsaw labeled this as "the largest attempted forceful invasion" of the country and boosted military presence at the border. This significantly reduced, but did not stop, the flow of illegal migrants from Belarus into the EU.
In June this year, Poland implemented a buffer zone at the Belarusian border to ensure the safety of "police officers, border guards, and military personnel, as well as to curtail the activities of smuggler groups facilitating illegal migration."