He heard a scream then felt “a shot which hit him in the back”. A 23-year-old Syrian migrant was injured by the shooting of a Polish soldier while trying to cross the border from Belarus, NGOs present in the region said on Sunday.
The young Syrian, who is awaiting surgery, “declared that he wanted to request international protection,” said a representative of the association. “The military police have opened an investigation,” said prosecutor Radoslaw Wiszenko, a member of the Bialystok public prosecutor’s office (north-east). “According to my information, it was an accident that happened when the soldier tripped” on the path, added the prosecutor.
50 deaths at the border
The Polish government built a metal fence along its border with Belarus in 2022 and deployed considerable military and police force there to deter migrants from crossing the border illegally.
Border guards, supported by the army, often apply push-backs to send migrants back to Belarus, measures criticized by human rights organizations.
According to NGOs present in the border area to help migrants, there have been at least 50 confirmed cases of death on the Polish-Belarusian border since the start of the migration crisis in this area in the summer of 2021. The fate of around 200 other migrants remains unknown.