Number of attempts to illegally cross the Polish-Belarusian border 2021-2024

As a result of the crisis between Belarus and the European Union, Polish border services recorded approximately 2.5 thousand illegal attempts to cross the Polish-Belarusian border in December 2023. Around 26 thousand immigrants, mainly from Middle Eastern and African countries, attempted to cross the border illegally in 2023. It was nearly 10 thousand more than in the previous year.
In 2021, due to the actions of Alexander Lukashenko's government, a migration crisis was initiated on Belarus's border with the European Union. The Belarusian authorities contributed by organizing the transfer of refugees and immigrants from Iraq, Afghanistan, and other countries of the Middle East and Africa across the Belarusian-Lithuanian and Belarusian-Polish-Latvian borders. These actions were meant to respond to EU sanctions against Belarus caused by the rigged presidential election in 2020 and the repression of oppositionists.