Polish Police Detain Five Suspects Over Footage of Threats to Migrants

A group of men recorded a clip near the center for refugees in Poland, in which they threatened its residents. Three of them face charges of inciting hatred against national and ethnic minorities, according to a Polish cultural center in Russia’s Kaliningrad.

KALININGRAD (Sputnik) — Polish police detained five men for alleged participation in filming and posting online a video footage with threats to inhabitants of a refugee reception center, a Polish cultural center in Russia’s Kaliningrad said Wednesday, citing the prosecutor’s office in the Polish city of Lodz.

The video clip titled "Polish Jihad," in which young people in masks are waving axes and machetes and voicing threats to refugees, appeared on YouTube late last year.

"A group of men recorded a clip near the center for refugees, in which they threatened its residents. Three of them face charges of inciting hatred against national and ethnic minorities," the center said in a statement.

According to the statement, police have determined that the footage was made in the village of Grotniki in the Lodz Voidodeship. During searches at the houses of the suspects, police found a machete, as well as air guns. The detained suspects are reportedly aged 23-38.

Europe has been beset by a refugee crisis, with hundreds of thousands of undocumented migrants fleeing their home countries in the Middle East and North Africa to escape violence and poverty.

Poland is among countries which have opposed the EU quota scheme for refugee redistribution across Europe, approved last September. Under the plan, Poland would have to accept some 7,000 refugees.