Poland Summons Belarusian Diplomat after Border Breach

Poland's foreign ministry said on Wednesday it had summoned the Belarusian charge d'affaires after Warsaw claimed armed and uniformed people entered Polish territory from Belarus.

The incident occurred amid an unprecedented wave of thousands of mostly Middle Eastern migrants and refugees attempting to illegally enter Poland and fellow EU members Latvia and Lithuania from Belarus. 

"The conversation concerned the incursion into Polish territory from the territory of the Republic of Belarus by unidentified, uniformed persons armed with rifles," the ministry said in a statement, adding that the incident took place November 1-2 overnight.

"Poland is determined to protect its own borders and the external borders of the European Union," it said.

The Polish foreign ministry also summoned the Belarus charge d'affairs in early October after it said that Belarusian personnel fired shots at Polish soldiers on the border between the two countries.

The EU accuses Belarusian strongman Alexander Lukashenko of orchestrating the wave of migrants and refugees attempting to cross into EU territory in retaliation for sanctions imposed by Brussels over a brutal crackdown by his regime on the opposition.

Migrants and refugees say they are often forced across by Belarusian forces and pushed back by Polish officials, meaning that many are stranded at the border in increasingly severe autumnal weather conditions.

At least 10 migrants have died so far in the area, seven of them on the Polish side of the border, according to Poland's Gazeta Wyborcza daily.

The latest fatality was an Iraqi man who died on the Polish side on Friday after crossing over from Belarus, Poland's border guard confirmed. Local media reported he was diabetic.

Poland has responded to the unprecedented migrant arrivals by sending thousands of soldiers to the border and implementing a state of emergency there, building a barbed wire fence and approving the construction of a border wall.