A man driving a van transporting nine Syrian migrants drove through a Polish security checkpoint at the border with Slovakia on Thursday (October 5). He broke his leg while attempting to flee on foot.
A suspected migrant smuggler broke his leg after fleeing Polish security checks at the border with Slovakia on Thursday (October 5). The man was driving a van carrying nine Syrian migrants, dpa reports.
The van reportedly broke through the Polish checkpoint at the border with Slovakia and accelerated into Polish territory, ignoring requests to stop. A Polish border authority spokesperson said the driver eventually abandoned the van to attempt to flee on foot.
According to the spokesperson, the driver fell down a slope and broke his leg while running away. The suspect is reported to be a Moroccan national with a residence permit in Germany. He was taken to hospital in Poland.
Tighter controls on Slovak borders
This latest incident comes after several countries announced plans earlier this week to tighten checks at the Slovak border in response to an increase in the number of migrants crossing over from the country.
According to the Polish border guard's (Straz Graniczna) feed on X (formerly known as Twitter), 75 migrants attempted to cross the border into Poland from Belarus on October 5. The majority came from India and Syria.
At the beginning of the week, Poland announced plans to open a sixth border guard facility in its Silesia region near the country's borders with Czech Republic, Slovakia and Germany.
Slovak-Hungarian border
Slovakia also increased its own checks and controls with Hungary this week. Following elections last weekend, a caretaker government is in charge of Slovakia while Left-wing populist Robert Fico undertakes coalition talks to attempt to form a government after winning the greatest share of the vote.
detained them near the Slovakia-Hungary border, Slovakia, October 5, 2023 | Photo: Bernadett Szab / Reuters
The news agency Reuters published pictures on October 5 showing a group of Syrian migrants detained on the Slovak border with Hungary. In the pictures, a group of men are sitting behind bars waiting to be registered at the Slovak police registration center in Nitra. The group included a 4-year-old boy and several other children.
Germany has also stepped up the numbers of controls its police forces make along its eastern borders with Poland and the Czech Republic. The new tightening of borders has suspended normal free travel rules prescribed by the Schengen zone. The increased checks are initially expected to last ten days from the middle of this week when they were announced. In past cases though, countries have continued to renew the suspension of Schengen for much longer than the initial period.
With Reuters, dpa