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At the Bruzgi checkpoint, a group of migrants broke through from Belarus to Poland, Sputnik Belarus reported.
“The refugees damaged the barbed wire fence <…>, the Polish police filmed everything,” the agency’s Telegram channel said.
Two videos were released of the incident.
It is noted that “migrants, leaving the territory of Belarus, are moving along the Polish defensive fence.”
The footage shows that the group consists of several dozen people.
Meanwhile, as foreigners approach Poland’s border with Belarus, they automatically – as this reporter did – receive a simple and clear text message on their phones.
“The Polish border is sealed. BLR authorities told you lies. Go back to Minsk!” the SMS reads.
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The text also includes a warning not to take any “pills” from Belarusian soldiers; there have been unverified reports that Belarusian border guards have given people tablets containing methadone in order to “survive” the dangerous crossing to the other side.
The message has been sent to the thousands of refugees and migrants who have tried to breach the frontier and enter Poland from Belarus in recent weeks, people that rights groups say are being used as tools in a months-long dispute between the West and Russia-allied Minsk.
In the summer, on the borders of Belarus with Poland and the Baltic countries, the flow of refugees from the Middle East and Africa trying to break through to Western Europe increased. The situation escalated on November 8, when about two thousand people gathered at the barrage wire.
Polish security forces thwarted several attempts to break through, including with the use of tear gas, illegal immigrants set up a spontaneous camp.
Vilnius, Riga and Warsaw blame Belarusians for what is happening, Minsk denies all accusations. Lukashenka said that the country will no longer restrain the flow of people: because of the West’s sanctions, there is “neither money nor energy for this.”
The crisis deepened in the second week of November as hundreds more headed to the border in scenes some observers say are akin to those from the early stages of the 2015 European refugee crisis.
Poland has responded by strengthening its border to repel the growing numbers arriving from Belarus, with Warsaw and its allies accusing the administration of President Alexander Lukashenko – and Russian leader Vladimir Putin – of encouraging people to make the perilous journey towards Central Europe.
According to them, Minsk is acting in revenge, trying to destabilize Europe in return for Western sanctions on Belarus after last year’s disputed election that handed Lukashenko a sixth term – and the subsequent crackdown on dissent.
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