They were traveling from the Polish-Belarusian border towards Germany. There were 14 people on the bus. Ten of them had passports with a Russian visa. That’s nine Syrians and a Palestinian. Three Belarusians were legally residing in Poland and they were arrested for “aiding in the illegal crossing of the border”.
On one of the routes of the Mazowieckie Voivodeship, leading from the Polish-Belarusian border towards Warsaw, border guards stopped a bus with Polish registration plates for inspection, which was carrying 14 foreigners: 10 Syrians, a Palestinian and three Belarusians.
“During the control of the legality of stay by the Border Guard officers against foreigners, it turned out that the Belarusians have a legal residence status in our country, and the others, except for one – claiming to be a Syrian citizen – had passports with Russian visas. However, none of them had documents entitling them to enter and stay in Poland. The men, in the presence of an interpreter, admitted that the purpose of their illegal journey was to get further west, to Germany, the Border Guard informs.
Accusation of aiding and abetting the illegal border crossing
Belarusians were charged with aiding other foreigners in the illegal crossing of the state border, while the others were charged with crossing the state border against the law by deceit in cooperation with other persons.
The Commander of the Warszawa-Modlin Border Guard Post initiated ex officio administrative proceedings regarding the obligation to return all detained foreigners.
Arrest for Belarusians
Preparatory proceedings were initiated against 11 foreigners and they were interrogated as suspects. Each of them was charged with Art. 264 § 2 PC. They all pleaded guilty to the charges against them and voluntarily submitted to a four-month prison sentence suspended for two years.
Article 264 § 2. Whoever crosses the border of the Republic of Poland against the law, using violence, threats, deceit or in cooperation with other persons, shall be subject to the penalty of deprivation of liberty for up to 3 years. imprisonment from 6 months to 8 years.
On the other hand, three citizens of Belarus were placed under temporary detention by the decision of the District Court in Ostrów Mazowiecka.
Operation “Sluice” – Lukashenko’s revenge
The migration crisis on the borders of Belarus with Poland, Lithuania and Latvia was caused by Alyaksandr Lukashenko, who is accused of waging a hybrid war. It consists in an organized transfer of migrants to the territory of Poland, Lithuania and Latvia. During the 27 years of his rule, Lukashenka has often threatened Europe with weakening border controls.
The action of bringing migrants to Belarus from the Middle East or Africa to cause a migration crisis was described on his blog in August last year by Tadeusz Giczan, a journalist from the Belarusian opposition channel Nexta. He explained that the Belarusian security services were running the idea invented 10 years ago in this way Operation Sluice. Under the guise of trips to Minsk, promising to transfer to the EU, Lukashenko’s regime brought thousands of migrants to Belarus. Then he transported them to the borders of EU countries, where Belarusian services force them to cross them illegally. This operation is still ongoing.
Main photo source: border guards