WARSAW — Poland’s defence minister on Wednesday warned that the crisis on the Belarusian border could last for months, saying migrants had been “attacking the Polish border” again during the night, AFP reported.
Poland yesterday fired tear gas and deployed water cannon against rock-throwing migrants trying to cross over in an escalation of a months-long stand-off on the EU’s eastern border.
Thousands of migrants, mainly from the Middle East, are camped out on the border in what the West says is a crisis engineered by Belarus to divide the EU and hit back against sanctions, charges Minsk has denied.
“The public attention focused on what happened in Kuznica, while smaller groups of migrants tried to break through the Polish border in other sections, also at night,” he said.
The border guard service said it had detected “161 attempts at illegal crossing” on Tuesday, including “two forceful attempts to cross the border registered during the evening”.
Polish police today said nine police officers were injured in the clashes yesterday, along with a border guard and a soldier.
A police spokesman said no injured officers remained in hospital.
