(AP) Poland has deployed hundreds of troops and is laying barbed wire along its border with Belarus to stop the arrival of migrants seeking to enter the country, officials said Wednesday.
Defense Minister Mariusz Blaszczak said more than 900 Polish troops were involved in the border operation. 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.
A deputy interior minister in Poland, Maciej Wasik, tweeted images of rolls of barbed wire laid along the border.
