Content related to extremist ideas was found on the mobile phones of some migrants entering Polish territory from Belarus. The situation is extremely tense, said Polish Interior Minister Mariusz Kaminski.
He also called for an extension of the state of emergency on the Polish-Belarusian border, Reuters reported.
Emergency measures were introduced in early September due to an increase in the number of illegal entry of migrants, which, according to Polish authorities, is Belarus’ fault. But the Polish nationalist government has been criticized by human rights groups for its treatment of migrants, five of whom have died at the border.
“The situation is extremely tense… I will ask the Council of Ministers to extend the state of emergency by 60 days,” the minister told a news conference yesterday.
At it, government officials showed materials presented as text messages and photos found in the electronic devices of some of the migrants and related to Islamist extremism.
The Polish opposition and human rights organizations have accused the ruling Law and Justice Party of fomenting anti-immigrant sentiment in the name of its political interests. During the 2015 migrant crisis, party leader Jaroslav Kaczynski said refugees from the Middle East could bring “various parasites” to Poland.
Yesterday, the interior minister said the government was not trying to stigmatize migrants, but only to present the evidence found to show that some migrants entering the border illegally could be a threat to national security.
According to him, the Polish special services have found that 50 out of 200 interrogated migrants have some connections with extremist organizations.
On security, all of the attention in the past couple of years, according to international researchers and experts, has been on national security, terrorism, extremism, and crime. There is an alternative concept, human security, which is about people’s lives and people’s livelihoods. If you apply that then it’s quite clear that the real security concern is that a large number of migrants, asylum seekers, and refugees are facing human security challenges, whether because they’re fleeing persecution, dying in transit, or facing discrimination in their new country. The real security debate is about human security, but that has been overwhelmed by a national security lens.
