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Poland has sent more than 900 troops to the border and set up a barbed-wire fence to deter Belarus migrants, the Associated Press reported.
Maciej Wasik, a deputy interior minister, tweeted pictures of the barbed wire running along the Poland-Belarus border. The Defense Ministry said the wire will run for about 60 miles of the 260-mile border. A fence to cover the most vulnerable stretch along the border will be installed soon.
About 2,100 people have tried to illegally cross the border so far this month, the Defense Ministry said in a statement Wednesday. Border guards were able to stop 1,342 from entering the country and 758 "were detained and imprisoned in closed centers."
"The government's priority is the safety of Polish citizens," the ministry said. Poland is currently run by the right-wing Law and Justice party which "has been opposed to illegal and uncontrolled migration from the outset" and single out Belarus migrants as a "threat to our citizens."
For more reporting from the Associated Press, see below.
It's believed that most of the migrants trying to cross over from Belarus are originally from Iraq, with some from Afghanistan and Syria as well.
Poland, like the Baltic nations of Lithuania, Estonia and Latvia, accuse the authoritarian government of Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko of sending migrants across their borders, which also form part of the European Union's eastern border.
Two lawmakers from the opposition party Civic Platform party brought blankets, sleeping bags and food to a group of some 50 people trapped in a no-man's land between Poland and Belarus on Wednesday. They called on the Polish government to ensure the group was given humane treatment.
Poland and the Baltic nations accuse Lukashenko of using the migrants as instruments in a "hybrid war." They believe his government has acted in retaliation to EU sanctions imposed on Belarus following Lukashenko's reelection last year in a vote which the West saw as rigged, as well as for harsh repressions of Belarusian protesters.
European Union ministers were holding a meeting on Wednesday to address the matter. German Chancellor Angela Merkel said on the eve of the meeting that "this is hybrid aggression that uses human beings."
The government in Warsaw is also working on legislation that would address the migrant influx, though it could take weeks to pass any new law.
The draft legislation says that Poland would not have to consider applications for refugee status of those who enter the country illegally or arrive from a country where the government does not consider them to be in danger, including Belarus, Russia and Ukraine.
