700 soldiers of territorial defence troops and the Military Gendarmerie aid safe borders with Germany and Lithuania. On the night of Sunday, on Monday, temporary checks were launched to prevent illegal migration. MON head Władysław Kosiniak-Kamysz announced that as many as 5,000 military men could be active in the operation if needed.
Soldiers of territorial defence troops and the Military Gendarmerie aid safe borders with Germany and Lithuania.
At the border with Germany, the checks are carried out at 52 points. On 16 of them the Border defender operates around the clock. On the another hand, 13 crossings were covered on the border with Lithuania, of which round-the-clock checks take place on two. “We have committed immense forces and resources across the country. Today, 800 border guards, reinforced by a group of 300 police officers, 500 territorial defence troops and 200 soldiers of the Military Gendarmerie will be conducting inspections – he calculated during the morning press conference Wiesław Szczepański, Deputy Minister of Interior and Administration. However, this is not the end, due to the fact that as announced on the X Service this morning by Deputy Prime Minister and national defence minister Władysław Kosiniak-Kamysz, the scale of engagement of the army may be even greater if necessary. "Even 5,000 soldiers are prepared to act. We are strengthening safety – we are definitely responding to migration threats" - assured the head of the MON.
In the west, the support of the Border defender is provided by territorialists from the brigades of Lubuska, Lower Silesian and West Pomeranian. In the north-east – from Podlasie. – In the first case we sent 400 soldiers to the border, in the second – 100. They do not carry out documentary checks, they do not search vehicles, but accompany border guards during these activities. In case of unforeseen situations, they can aid them. It is besides a clear signal that we take the issues related to illegal migration very seriously – said Captain Grzegorz Hubacz, deputy spokesperson for WOT.
How are the border checks going?
Uniforms focus on cars entering Poland. The checks shall be carried out on a random basis. They concern mainly vehicles with tinted windows and buses which have no windows in the rear part. Border guards check travel documents, trunks of cars and, in the case of vans, alleged packages. The first results are here. A fewer minutes after the start of the inspection, Border defender officers informed on the X site about the detention of an Estonian citizen who tried to bring 4 illegal migrants to Poland through the border crossing with Lithuania. By 7.00 a.m. on Monday at the Polish-Lithuanian border, 620 people and 400 vehicles were inspected, 350 people and 160 vehicles on the Polish-German border.
Soldiers of territorial defence troops and the Military Gendarmerie aid safe borders with Germany and Lithuania.
Temporary checks are expected to last a month, but the government does not exclude their extension. The reason for their return at the border with Germany was the cases of sending illegal migrants detained there to Poland. Situations specified as those explained by Prime Minister Donald Tusk have caused many tensions in the country. In June, even self-proclaimed patrols of the alleged Border defence Movement appeared at border crossing points. According to media reports, their members stopped and controlled cars aimed at Poland, which they did not have the authority to do. The movement of Polish authorities was besides to be a symmetrical consequence to actions previously taken by the government in Berlin. Germany has been conducting random checks at the border with Poland for a long time.
Border checks with Lithuania
A small different was the reason for the introduction of controls in the crossings with Lithuania. The decision has an indirect link with situation on the neighbouring border with Belarus. The Minsk authorities have been bringing migrants from Asia and Africa to those areas for respective years, after which they effort to push them into the east states of the NATO flank. Experts have no uncertainty – it is simply a manifestation of the hybrid war which Russia and closely connected Belarus are conducting against the Alliance and the European Union. Poland, to defend itself from this, built a peculiar barrier and She put an army on the border.. Recently, the force on the border has eased somewhat. The Belarusians are moving more people to Latvia and Lithuania. From there, migrants without the essential permits effort – with the aid of smugglers, little frequently on their own – to get to Poland and further to the West. Now Polish services besides want to close this metastasis channel.
Although Poland belongs to the Schengen area, it has already carried out border checks with another European Union countries. This happened even in 2012, by the way. European football championshipsor Four years later, erstwhile the NATO summit was organized in Warsaw.
