The Border Guard Post in Bydgoszcz, Poland, has cracked down on a criminal organization that facilitated the entry of more than 10,000 foreign individuals into the country.
After a thorough operation, authorities have placed five people in temporary custody in connection with the operation, SchengenVisaInfo reports.
Border Guard officials uncovered a scheme where foreign nationals, mainly Ukrainians, obtained Polish visas that allowed employment through forged documentation. Further investigations also revealed that the suspects, operating under the guise of fictitious businesses, submitted applications to the District Labor Offices and other government bodies in the Kuyavian-Pomeranian Voivodeship.
According to a recent statement from the Border Guard, these applications requested declarations of work trust, seasonal work permits, and type A work permits on behalf of over 10,000 foreign nationals. These individuals then obtained visas to enter, stay, and supposedly work within Poland.
Border Guard officers in February this year carried out operations in Bydgoszcz and Warsaw, detaining six people – members of an organized criminal group. These are three men (aged 26 to 32) and three women (aged 26 to 52). During the activities, telephones, laptops, data storage media, and documents were seized, as well as money in various currencies with a total value of over PLN 200,000 for future penalties and fines.
After collecting convincing evidence, the court, acting according to the prosecutor’s request, decided on a security measure to detain five suspects temporarily. Any individual implicated in the case could face a maximum sentence of eight years in prison.
2.5k Attempt Illegal Entry in December Alone
Based on data provided by Statista, growing tensions between Belarus and the European Union increased about 2,500 attempts to illegally cross the Polish-Belarusian border in December 2023.
Throughout 2023, Polish border services encountered about 26,000 immigrants trying to cross the border illegally, marking a significant increase of nearly 10,000 compared to the previous year.
Polish border guard statistics also show that there has been a striking increase in the number of migrants detected at the Belarus-Poland border during the first eight and a half months of 2023, with figures surpassing twice the amount recorded during the corresponding period in 2022, totalling about 18,000 individuals. The majority of these migrants hailed from countries within the Middle East.
Decrease in Lithuania, Surge in Latvia Border Crossings With Belarus in 2023
Moreover, the data reveals notable trends along the borders of neighbouring countries. Specifically, in the first eight months of last year, 1,670 individuals were either detained or intercepted while attempting to cross Lithuania’s border with Belarus – a decrease from the 7,252 recorded during the same period in 2022.
Conversely, there was a significant rise in detections on Latvia’s border with Belarus, with 8,741 individuals apprehended or impeded from crossing—marking a considerable increase from the 3,189 reported in 2022.
