Poland: Two Polish soldiers injured after illegal migrants throw stones at border areas

The Polish Border Guard said their two soldiers were injured while attempting to stop migrants trying to enter the country, news agency Sputnik reported on Monday. According to the report, a scuffle broke out between migrants and Polish soldiers when they were trying to stop illegal migration on October 25. Citing the statement released by the Polish Border Guard, the news agency said this was the second such attempt at the border in the last week. According to the statement, about 60 and 70 people attacked the security forces with stones in which two of the soldiers got seriously injured. A video showing men trying to break the razor-wire border fence with a branch and helmeted Polish troops watching from nearby was posted on the Border Guards website.

"Over the weekend, two attempts of a border assault were recorded. Aggressive groups of about 60 and 70 people threw stones and branches at the border guard officers and soldiers of the Polish Army. Two soldiers were hospitalised. Both attempts of violent crossing into Poland were thwarted", Sputnik quoted the Polish Border Guard as saying in a statement. It is worth mentioning that many people have been trying to cross the border of Poland, Latvia and Lithuania from Belarus. However, Belarus, which has one of the lowest poverty rates in Europe, denied such migration from their country.

Poland deploys 6,000 soldiers on the border

Notably, to prevent illegal migration, Warsaw has announced an emergency on the border and deployed nearly 6,000 extra soldiers, according to Sputnik. Recently, at least eight people have died along the border between Belarus and the European Union, where multiple groups of asylum-seekers, refugees and migrants have been stranded for weeks in increasingly dire conditions. On October 22, Friday, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) appealed for urgent action to save lives and prevent further suffering at the border with Latvia, Lithuania, and Poland. According to the assessment of UNHRC, the situation would further deteriorate amid approaching winter. 

UNHCR advocates for the group to be granted asylum

In a statement released by UNHRC Regional Director for Europe, Pascale Moreau, he said, “When fundamental human rights are not protected, lives are at stake.” "It is unacceptable that people have died, and the lives of others are precariously hanging in the balance. They are held hostage by a political stalemate which needs to be solved now," he said. Notably, the UN agency mandated to aid and protect refugees has been advocating for the group to be granted asylum since a lot of migrants have expressed their wish to settle either in Belarus or in Poland. 

Image: AP