Major General Tomasz Praga, Commander in Chief of the Border Guard, and Colonel Andrzej Jakubaszek, Commander of the Podlasie Unit of the Border Guard, also participated in the press briefing held at the headquarters of the Podlasie Unit of the Border Guard. 

The Deputy Prime Minister and Chairman of the National Security and Defence Affairs Committee stressed that Poland was not facing immigration pressure from refugees. ‘It is economic immigrants who are coming. They are brought as part of an operation organised by the Belarusian authorities with the clear consent of the Russian Federation. The Belarusian security agencies completely tolerate it and are present there’, Jarosław Kaczyński noted. 

The Deputy Prime Minister pointed out that the actions of the Belarusian party are a cynical and brutal operation directed by President Lukashenko. ‘This operation was planned as a retaliation for supporting the Belarusian opposition and an attempt to put pressure on the EU’, he said. 

‘In Belarus, there is a one-kilometer-wide border zone that is heavily guarded and inaccessible to ordinary Belarusian citizens. The fact that these migrants are allowed in it is proof of the actions of the Belarusian authorities’, pointed out the chairman of the National Security and Defence Affairs Committee. 

Deputy Prime Minister Jarosław Kaczyński also spoke about specific actions of the Belarusian party. ‘These people are led to places where they will have a chance to cross the border. Sometimes Belarusian officers personally participate in crossing the barriers and cutting the wires’, said the Deputy Prime Minister. 

The Chairman of the National Security and Defence Affairs Committee also reported that during the meeting of the Committee, the construction of a barrier on the Polish-Belarusian border was discussed. ‘We also discussed the decisions already made, including in the financial sphere, to build a very serious barrier. The kind of barrier that is very difficult to break through. The European experience, the experience of a number of countries, e.g., Hungary and Greece, shows that this is the only effective method’, he emphasised. 

Major General Tomasz Praga, the Commander in Chief of the Border Guard, thanked Border Guard officers for their commitment. He emphasised that they perform their duties in an exemplary manner. 

Colonel Andrzej Jakubaszek, Commander of the Podlasie Unit of the Border Guard, pointed out that when we protect the Polish border we also protect the border of the European Union.