At a press conference, Maciej Wasik, a deputy minister, said that the entire illegal migration process is organised by the Belarusian Border Guards.
Rafał Guz/PAP

Poland’s Border Guard (SG) has asked the Defence Ministry to deploy an additional 1,000 troops to the Polish-Belarusian border, the Interior Ministry said on Monday.

The request follows a number of incidents, some of them violent, on the border. There are also mounting fears that the Belarusian authorities could try to push migrants across the frontier once again in a repeat of the 2021 migration crisis that saw hundreds of people trying to force their way into Poland.

At a press conference, Maciej Wasik, a deputy minister, said that the entire illegal migration process is organised by the Belarusian Border Guards.

“It would not be possible to cross (the border – PAP) without the participation of the Belarusian forces,” he said.

Wasik added that the level of aggression targeting SG officers and soldiers on the border with Belarus is increasing.

In one incident, he said, an object fired from Belarus broke the window of an SG car. The Belarusian authorities, Wasik added, have also damaged the border fence in order to allow migrants to cross.

“We need more forces on the border,” Wasik said, adding that the SG commander had asked the Defence Ministry for the additional troops.