Border guards near the town of Narowka in Podlaskie voivodeship discovered a tunnel dug under the Polish-Belarusian border, the Polish Border Guard Service reported on 12 December. It was used by migrants to illegally cross the state border.
The tunnel, dug under the barrier and technical road, was several dozen metres long and about 1.5 metres high. Its entrance, hidden in the forest, was located about 50 metres from the border on the Belarusian side and its exit about 10 metres from the barrier on the Polish side.
Thanks to electronic systems, border guards found out that more than 180 illegal migrants had entered Poland through the tunnel in a short period of time, the Border Guard Service said. More than 130 foreigners who used the tunnel have been detained, while the rest are being searched for by soldiers and police officers with service dogs, border guards said.
The detained foreigners include mostly citizens of Afghanistan and Pakistan, as well as citizens of India, Nepal and Bangladesh. Border guards detained two drivers, a 69-year-old resident of Małopolskie Voivodeship and a 49-year-old Lithuanian citizen, who came to pick up the migrants to transport them to Western Europe.