Migrants use portable toilet as battering ram as tensions rise at Polish-Belarusian border

Poland’s Border Guard has said migratory pressure on the border with Belarus is increasing with frequent attacks on personnel, and migrants even using a portable toilet as a battering ram to break down fences.

Poland has been tackling a migration crisis at its border with Belarus since 2021. Warsaw accuses Minsk of artificially orchestrating the situation as part of a ‘hybrid war’ tactic intended to destabilize Poland and the EU. 

The frequency and severity of illegal entry attempts has been increasing, with migrants throwing projectiles, including Molotov cocktails at border guards and troops. In July, Polish soldiers fired rubber bullets at migrants trying to force entry, resulting in one Sudanese man being hospitalized. 

“Migration pressure remains high on the Polish-Belarusian border,” Border Guard HQ said in a statement on Thursday. “Border Guard officers take daily action to prevent foreigners from attempting to cross the border illegally.” 

The statement went on to say migrants are frustrated that the border is being protected effectively and are resorting to attacks on officers and attempts to force the border. 

A video posted to the Border Guard’s website showed migrants using a portable toilet to try to breach a barbed-wire fence at the frontier.

In another incident highlighted on the website, 13 Afghan migrants were caught trying to cross the Bug River, which forms part of the border, in a dinghy. They were detected by recently installed surveillance equipment forming part of an ‘electronic barrier’ between the two countries.