Status: 25.10.2021 7:20 p.m.
More and more migrants arrive illegally in Germany on the route via Belarus and Poland. According to the Federal Police, there were already more than 4,200 in October alone. They should now be distributed quickly within Germany.
The number of migrants arriving in Germany from Belarus via Poland has risen sharply. As the federal police announced, 4,246 unauthorized entries via the new route were found from October 1st to October 24th. Since the beginning of the year, 6,657 unauthorized border crossings related to Belarus have been registered. Most of the people come from crisis areas such as Syria and Iraq.
There are no signs of an easing of the situation. The refugees should now be distributed more quickly within Germany in order to relieve the border region. This project is expected to start in the first week of November. A spokesman for the Berlin Federal Police Directorate said this was currently in preparation. There are also plans to keep heated rooms available for the initial registration by the federal police.
Poland increases the number of soldiers on the border
Poland wants to better protect its border with neighboring Belarus in the future. The Polish Defense Minister Mariusz Blaszczak announced via Twitter that a further 2,500 soldiers would be deployed there. A total of 10,000 soldiers would then be deployed in the Polish-Belarusian border area.
Poland has already set up barbed wire barriers along the border with Belarus. The construction of a permanent fortification is planned. According to the Polish border guards, there were two more attempts to violently breach the border. In both cases, aggressive groups of 60 to 70 migrants threw branches and stones at the Polish border guards, the agency tweeted. Both attempts failed.
Meanwhile, the camp of another group of migrants who camped in a forest for weeks has now been abandoned, the border guard announced. The fate of this group of migrants had deeply moved the Polish public. The information provided by the border guards cannot be independently verified, as Poland has declared a state of emergency in the border region. Journalists and helpers are not allowed in.
“State trafficking in human beings”
In response to Western sanctions, the Belarusian ruler Alexander Lukashenko announced in the spring that he would no longer stop migrants en route to the European Union. Since then, the number of irregular border crossings at the EU’s external borders with Belarus and at the German-Polish border has increased.
The EU accuses Lukashenko of smuggling people in in an organized manner. Chancellor Angela Merkel and other German politicians spoke of “state trafficking in human beings”.