(AP) Poland’s parliament voted Monday to uphold the state of emergency along the border with Belarus that was declared last week amid migration pressure.
The vote came after Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki told lawmakers that the country faces a threat from Russia and Belarus as he sought support for the state of emergency, which was declared last week by President Andrzej Duda — a step unprecedented in the country’s post-communist history.
Morawiecki told the parliament that the defense of the Polish borders is the responsibility of the state, and that “in Moscow and Minsk scenarios are being written” that threaten Poland’s security and sovereignty.
Poland, Lithuania and Latvia — the three European Union nations that border Belarus — accuse Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko of pushing migrants from Iraq, Afghanistan, Syria and elsewhere into their countries illegally.
