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Two groups of migrants broke through the Polish-Belarus border late on Tuesday evening, raising the stakes in a growing conflict at the European Union’s eastern frontier.
Polish border police said that about two groups of 80 and 200 people, mostly Kurds, made it through, though most were brought back to the border.
In an emergency sitting of Poland’s parliament in Warsaw on Tuesday evening, Polish prime minister Mateusz Morawiecki called the stand-off an “orchestrated spectacle” and an unprecedented test of EU security and integrity.
“It’s not just that violence is being used at our eastern border, against the sovereign Polish state,” said Mr Morawiecki in the Sejm. “A spectacle is being staged there in order to disrupt our border, to foment chaos in Poland and the European Union. ”
After months of build-up on Poland’s eastern border, an estimated 4,000 people – from Iraq, Afghanistan and other countries – are living in make-shift camps on the border. Poland has declared a state of emergency in the region and deployed up to 13,000 soldiers and border police, excluding all media and human rights groups.



Migrants clashing with security personnel at the border between Poland and Belarus in Kuznica. Photograph: Polish Defence Ministry/AFP via Getty Images)


European Council president Charles Michel will visit Warsaw on Wednesday, amid growing pressure on Warsaw to accept external assistance to police its border.
Mr Morawiecki told the Sejm that Belarusian president Alexander Lukashenko was “using these people as human shields” and “merely doing the bidding of his protector” in Moscow, Vladimir Putin. An emotional debate followed over a crisis that has tapped deep historical fears of Russian interference in Polish sovereignty.
Funnelling migrants to the border with Poland is widely seen as retaliation for EU sanctions against Minsk’s crackdown on political opponents and civil rights campaigners.
The breakthrough of the EU’s eastern outer wall follows insistence on Tuesday by Poland’s president Andrzej Duda that Poland had “sufficient strength and resources” to police the border.
Defence minister Mariusz Blaszczak told lawmakers that the mounting migrant crisis was “the sternest test” for Polish law enforcement agencies.
Speaking before the Tuesday night breakthrough, he said Polish forces had so far “passed this test with flying colours”.
On Wednesday morning Belarusian television showed images of migrants with cuts to their hands, which it said had been caused by barbed wire used to secure the border.
‘Carefully watching’
Earlier, Minsk condemned the “harsh actions of the Polish side towards peaceful people”.
In an interview with national television Mr Lukashenko called on Poland to allow the migrants through to Germany, while the Kremlin said it was “very carefully watching” the stand-off.
Nato and the EU have condemned Belarus officials for steering the migration wave, Europe’s largest since the 2015-2016 crisis.
In Brussels on Tuesday, the European Commission attacked Minsk’s “gangster-style approach” to migration, in particular for guiding some migrants directly to the border.
Commission spokesman Peter Stano said it was “inhuman” to lead migrants to the border and force them across.
Polish intelligence says migrants, in make-shift camps on the other side of the border, are largely under the control of the Belarus army and intelligence. They fear further provocations in coming days and have not ruled out “shots and casualties”.
Poland’s migrant crisis has prompted a shift in its relationship with Brussels and its EU neighbours, after years of growing tension over the rule of law and claims of a political take-over of courts.
Germany’s acting federal interior minister Horst Seehofer praised Poland for protecting the EU’s outer border with “permissible means”.
“They are doing a very important service for the whole of Europe, ” he said on Tuesday.
Hours earlier, footage went viral on social media appearing to show migrants at the eastern Polish border shouting, “German!”
Further sanctions
In Berlin, acting foreign minister Heiko Maas has spoken out in favour of further sanctions against Minsk and all airlines flying in people from Iraq, Afghanistan and other crisis regions.
“Lukashenko has to realise that his plan will not work,” said Mr Maas.
France has accused Belarus of “seeking to destabilise the EU”. White House spokesman Ned Price said the United States “strongly condemns” Minsk’s “exploitation and coercion of vulnerable people and the regime’s callous and inhumane facilitation of irregular migration flows across its borders”.
The migrant crisis has eclipsed all other events in Poland with Mr Morawiecki urging political unity of all parties, warning “it will be easy to break us and interfere with our sovereignty”.
The struggle has left Poland’s political opposition divided over whether to support the government line.
Mr Donald Tusk, head of the Civic Platform party and former European Council president, backs to defend the outer EU border – but has demanded greater respect for growing humanitarian problems.
Directed at Mr Morawiecki, Mr Tusk warned: “Migrants aren’t political gold.”
Meanwhile, public broadcaster TVP, a staunch supporter of the government, told its viewers that “the opposition is supporting migrants and Lukashenko”.