Poland set to declare state of emergency over migrant crisis
Poland’s frontier with Belarus is not a traditional migration route, but this has changed in recent weeks
Poland’s frontier with Belarus is not a traditional migration route, but this has changed in recent weeks
WOJTEK RADWANSKI/AFP/GETTY IMAGES
Maria Wilczek, Krynki
Wednesday September 01 2021, 12.01am BST, The Times
Poland is to introduce a state of emergency for the first time since the end of communist rule in an attempt to block thousands of migrants, including Afghans and Iraqis, illegally entering the country from Belarus.

Yesterday the government formally asked President Duda to declare the emergency in two eastern regions in response to hostile action by Alexander Lukashenko, the autocratic Belarusian president.

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“Lukashenko’s regime decided to push these people onto Polish, Lithuanian and Latvian territory in an effort to destabilise,” said Mateusz Morawiecki, the prime minister.


Relations between the EU and Belarus have worsened sharply in the past year since Lukashenko claimed victory in an election widely seen as rigged. The EU has imposed economic sanctions on Belarus and has accused Lukashenko, 67, of

https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/p...isis-xdmk8gjv3