‘They will not come in’: Mounting standoff over migrants on Poland and Belarus border

“They will not come in,” Maciej Wąsik, Poland’s deputy interior minister wrote on Twitter, adding said the Polish border guard, police and army were ready to push them back. “Poland’s state services are prepared for all circumstances,” he said.

As the dramatic scene unfolded, Lithuania, which also has a frontier nearby, moved troops to its border, according to Reuters, citing the country’s Interior Minister Agne Bilotiate.

Earlier videos had showed the large columns of migrants carrying suitcases and belongings, walking along a highway empty of traffic, escorted by armed Belarusian servicemen.

The European Union has blamed Belarusian authorities for creating a migrant crisis as a tool to amp up pressure on Europe. Angered by E.U. sanctions, President Alexander Lukashenk warned in late June that Belarus would no longer prevent asylum seekers, drugs and even nuclear materials from entering the European Union.

The Belarusian State Border Committee blamed Poland for Monday’s incident, claiming that “the indifference and inhuman attitude of the Polish authorities prompted the refugees to take such a step of despair.” Belarusian border guards told state-owned Russian news agency RIA Novosti that around 3,000 people were moving toward the border, including women and children.

Humanitarian groups say that unsuspecting, vulnerable refugees and migrants caught in the middle are at extreme risk, as they are ping-ponged between the borders with temperatures dropping. The initially small number of crossings has grown in recent weeks.

“More and more people are coming,” said Kalina Czwarnog, a coordinator with Fundacja Ocalenie, which tries to provide humanitarian assistance to those who have crossed. She said their conditions varied. “Sometimes people are in a state of hypothermia and they really can’t walk again and sometimes people are in good shape,” she said, adding she was concerned there could be violence at the border as neo-Fascist groups have also mobilized to “help” the border guards.

“This border is sacred,” Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki, said on Monday. “The border of the Polish state is not just a line on the map. Generations of Poles shed their blood for this border.”

He said that all parties should be on the side of the border guards in the face of the “threat.”

Independent Belarusian media outlet Nexta reported that the migrants were blocked from reaching the Belarus border checkpoint and were funneled by Belarusian security forces into a forest adjacent to the border.

Other independent Belarusian media posted video of several hundred migrants in a forest next to the barbed wire border fence. Some were standing next to the fence, unable to proceed. Others, including women and children were seated on the grass.

Franak Viačorka, an adviser to Belarusian opposition leader, Svetlana Tikhanovskaya, tweeted that the migrant crisis was “true state-backed smuggling,” organized by Lukashenko.

Earlier in the summer, refugees had largely been directed toward Lithuania, where officials accused Lukashenko of weaponizing refugees in a “hybrid attack,” and erected barbed wire fencing to prevent migrants from entering from Belarus.

At the European Union summit last month, outgoing German Chancellor Angela Merkel threatened further economic sanctions against Belarus to convey condemnation of what she described as a “form of human trafficking — it must be said — by the state.”

In September Polish President Andrzej Duda declared a state of emergency covering 183 towns and villages in two provinces neighboring Belarus, the first time such powers have been used since the fall of Communism.

Russian authorities praised Belarusian for handling the crisis “in a legal way.” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov there was no doubt that Belarusian authorities were “taking all necessary measures to ensure the security of both Russia and Belarus in connection with the situation with migrants on the Polish-Belarusian border.”

Dixon reported from Moscow. Darius Kalan in Warsaw contributed.