Poland Declares State of Emergency Amid Belarusian Border Crisis
Robert Snapp
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Poland’s national-conservative government has declared a state of emergency in a two-mile area along its border with Belarus. The zone runs through 115 towns in the Podlaskie region and 68 towns in the Lubelskie region.
Among other things, the declaration grants the country’s security forces additional powers to repel illegal migrants who are being driven across the border by the Belarusian state in retaliation for sanctions recently imposed by the European Union, the Polish news portal Forsal reports.
The emergency, declared by Polish President Andrzej Duda, a close ally to former U.S. President Donald Trump, will last for a period of 30 days.
While speaking with the country’s national press, Polish interior minister Mariusz Kamiński slammed Belarusian President Aleksander Lukashenko and noted that the decision was made to prevent tragic incidents and to protect Polish citizens living in villages and towns along the Belarusian border.
“The goal of the fake crisis caused by Lukashenko is to destabilize the situation in Poland, Lithuania, and Latvia. We must show, that Lukashenko’s actions will not lead to the results that he expects,” said Kamiński.
“No trips, no happenings, and demonstrations will be able to be organized along this border zone,” Kamiński added, referring to recent visits by pro-migration organizations to the area.
In the month of August, Polish authorities recorded more than 3,000 attempts at illegal border crossings.
“The situation on the border with Belarus is a crisis, it’s very tense because Lukashenko’s regime is transporting people mainly from Iraq to the territory of Belarus and is then shoving these people on to the territory of Poland, Lithuania, and Latvia to destabilize our countries,” Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawieck said.
As Big League Politics previously reported, a well-known activist from the Soros-funded ‘Open Dialogue Foundation’ was among 13 radical open-borders activists who were arrested last weekend for destroying a barrier put up along the Polish-Belarusian border.
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