Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk has announced plans for a targeted information campaign to discourage migrants from entering Poland illegally.
Poland has faced a migrant crisis on its borders since late 2021, when thousands of mostly Middle Eastern and African migrants began attempting to cross into Poland illegally via Belarus.
In a video posted to social media on Friday, Tusk warned potential migrants that they would not be able to cross Poland’s “sealed” border illegally.
“Soon we’re beginning an information campaign in seven countries from which the highest number of migrants attempting to cross the Polish border originate,” Tusk said.
“Our message will be simple: the Polish border is sealed tight. Do not believe the smugglers, do not believe [Belarusian President Alexander] Lukashenko, do not believe [Russian President Vladimir] Putin.
“They are lying to you when they say that this is a path to Europe. This is not true. You will be unable to apply for asylum here.”
Tusk went on to say that thousands of soldiers, border guards and police officers guard every meter of the border with the use of drones and cameras. He also showed a video of a group of migrants being detained after crossing the Polish border illegally.
The prime minister did not specify which countries would be targeted by the campaign.
Polish authorities have faced criticism from human rights organizations for using illegal pushback tactics to send migrants back into Belarus without being given the chance to apply for asylum.
Dozens of migrants are thought to have died in border regions since 2021, often caught between the Polish and Belarusian sides with nowhere to go.
Last year, a Polish soldier was also killed after being stabbed by a migrant.
Warsaw and Brussels have long maintained that Kremlin-allied Lukashenko is behind the influx of migrants. They accuse the Belarusian leader of orchestrating the migrant crisis to destabilize the EU.
Poland has ramped up border security in recent years, including building a large steel barrier on sections of both its frontier with Belarus and its border with the Russian exclave Kaliningrad. It has also established temporary exclusion zones and granted authorities extra powers in border areas.
Last month, Polish President Andrzej Duda signed a law passed by parliament that allows for the temporary suspension of the right to asylum, drawing the ire of human rights groups.
