Poland warns of further large migrant clashes on Belarus border
KYIV (Reuters) – Thousands of migrants were massing near the Belarus border on Monday, Polish authorities said, as European Union member states called for more sanctions against Minsk and security forces braced for more attempts to force through the frontier.
Warsaw has accused Belarus of trying to spark a major confrontation, with video clips showing hundreds of migrants walking towards the Polish border and some trying to breach the fence using spades and other implements.
"We expect that in the coming hours attacks on our border will be renewed by groups of several hundred people," Pawel Soloch, the head of Poland's National Security Bureau, told reporters.
Polish government spokesman Piotr Muller said that there were currently 3,000-4,000 migrants near the border, and more than 10,000 others across Belarus ready to try and cross into Poland.
Warsaw said it had deployed additional soldiers, border guards and police, while neighbouring Lithuania said it might introduce a state of emergency on its border with Belarus.
Poland said it had withstood the first attempts on Monday by the migrants to force their way across the border.
The Polish Border Guard announced that as of 06:00 GMT on Tuesday the crossing at Kuznica, near the site where migrants tried to force their way through, would be closed.
"We have three border crossings with Belarus," Deputy Interior Minister Maciej Wasik told private broadcaster Polsat News. "The closure of one of them can... be treated as a kind of economic sanction."
Wasik said there should be tougher EU sanctions against Minsk following the escalation of tensions on the border. The Baltic states Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia have issued similar calls.
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said she was calling for member states to approve extended sanctions against the Belarusian authorities.
The EU also wants to target airlines from third countries that help transport the migrants from the Middle East to Belarus.
The European Union accuses Minsk of encouraging migrants from the Middle East and Africa to cross into the EU via Belarus, as a form of hybrid warfare in revenge for Western sanctions on President Alexander Lukashenko's government over human rights abuses.
A video distributed by Polish authorities showed one man cutting part of a barbed wire fence, another attacking the fence with a spade, while a Polish soldier sprayed an unidentified substance from a can.
In an earlier video, shared by the Belarusian blogging service NEXTA, migrants carrying rucksacks and wearing winter clothing were seen walking on the side of a highway. Other videos showed large groups of migrants sitting by the road and being escorted by armed men dressed in khaki.
