Poland detains 11 people for smuggling migrants from Belarus

Polish border guards have detained suspects of involvement in an organized criminal group that organized illegal migration from Belarus to Poland.

This was reported on Thursday by the regional prosecutor’s office in Zamość, Lubelskie Voivodeship, RMF FM reports.

“We exposed another group that was involved in organizing illegal migration. A total of 11 people were detained,” the report said. The detained suspects now face up to 12 years in jail.

Residents of Warsaw, Lodz, and three citizens of Georgia, Azerbaijan, and Ukraine were detained on August 19 by border guards from Slavatychi, said Rafal Kawalec, a spokesman for the Zamość Prosecutor’s Office, on Thursday.

He added that it was another investigation conducted under the supervision of the Zamość Voivodeship Prosecutor’s Office into the organization of illegal border crossings.

“We detained eleven members of a criminal group, including citizens from Georgia, Azerbaijan, Ukraine, and Belarus, who were involved in the smuggling of illegal migrants.” The “Belarusian route” served as the smuggling route for the group’s activities, according to Kavalets.

Investigators discovered that migrants were transported to an area of the Polish-Belarusian border, which they then crossed on foot (illegally—outside of border crossing points). The Polish side then picked them up and transported them by car to Germany and other Western European countries.

Eleven people face charges of organizing illegal migration, with 10 of them suspected of belonging to an organized criminal group.

“The case is under investigation,” added the spokesman for the Polish prosecutor’s office.

The suspects face up to 12 years in prison. Eight people have been chosen a preventive measure in the form of temporary detention.

Unrecognized President of Belarus Alexander Lukashenko recently said that Minsk would not prevent interested migrants from entering the EU, making it clear that this was his response to European sanctions.

Throughout the spring and summer, Poland reported regular clashes at the border between border guards and groups of migrants in Belarus, sometimes with casualties. On May 28, a migrant seriously injured a 21-year-old Polish border guard, who died a week later.