Eleven traffickers at the Polish-Belarusian border
Over three days (May 5-7, 2023), officers from the Polish Border Guards detained 11 people involved in helping illegally cross the Polish-Belarusian border.
On the May 7, 5 Ukrainian citizens were detained, who were transporting 11 illegal migrants in three cars. One courier, who was carrying 6 Afghan citizens, was detained by officers from the Border Guard Post in Białowieża. On the other hand, the officers from the Border Guard Post in Bobrowniki detained 2 men transporting 2 Somali citizens, and Police officers cooperating with the Border Guard detained another two men who transported 3 Ethiopian citizens.
On Saturday (May 6), a citizen of Latvia was detained in the area of official responsibility of the Border Guard Post in Białowieża. A man in a bus attempted to transport 10 foreigners (9 Afghan citizens and 1 Iraqi citizen) deep into Western Europe, who had previously illegally crossed the Polish-Belarusian border.
On Friday (May 5), another 5 couriers were detained. In the vicinity of Narewka, 2 Ukrainian citizens were detained, who were transporting a total of 11 Afghan citizens. Two citizens of Belarus, who were transporting 5 Afghans in two cars, were detained by officers from the Border Guard Post in Bobrowniki together with the Police. In the Michałów area, a Ukrainian citizen who came to pick up a group of illegal migrants was detained.
In addition to charges for aiding and abetting illegal border crossings, all couriers will be subject to administrative proceedings in order to issue a decision obliging them to return to their country of origin. Detained foreigners for helping other people to cross the border of the Republic of Poland against the regulations are punishable by up to 8 years. They will also be banned from entering the Schengen area for 5 to 10 years.
Since the beginning of the year, the officers of the Podlaskie Border Guard Unit on the section of the border with Belarus have already detained 260 traffickers organizing illegal border crossings.
