Polish Border Guard Officer Suffers Head Injury As Migrants Storm Polish-Belarusian Border

WARSAW (Sputnik) - A Polish Border Guard officer has suffered a head injury during migrants’ attack on the border in attempt to enter the country from Belarusian territory, the Polish border guard said on Monday.

"During today's forceful attempts to push the Polish-Belarusian border near Czeremcha and Szudzialowo, foreign citizents and Belarusian services threw not only stones, but noise firecrackers in the direction of Polish patrols. The Border guard officer received head injuries, she was hospitalized," the statement said.

According to the border control, in the past 24 hours 49 attempts to illegally cross the border from the Belarusian territory have been registered.

In 2021, the Polish border guard recorded over 40,000 attempts of illegal border crossing, which is several dozen times more than a year earlier. The monthly number grew from 3,500 in August to 7,700 in September and 17,400 in October, before decreasing to 8,900 in November.

Belarus started assisting migrants in their voluntary return home late November. Nonetheless, the number of migrants stuck at the Polish-Belarusian border at the end of 2021 amounted to around 2,000 people, with 600 placed at the Bruzgi migrant camp only.

Thousands of migrants have gathered at Belarus' borders with Poland and other neighboring EU countries since early summer trying to reach Europe through the Belarusian border. In response to illegal crossing attempts, Warsaw boosted security in the area, blaming Minsk for fueling the crisis to get back at Brussels for imposing sanctions. Belarus, for its part, reiterated that it could no longer curb illegal migration the EU due Western sanctions.