A group of migrants have camped overnight on the far side of Poland’s eastern border in Belarus.

Polish police posted a video on Tuesday, which showed the migrants were met with riot police and coils of razor wire, but officers said the situation overnight was calm.

That followed a day of heavy tensions on the border.

Kuźnica: an attempt forcing the 🇵🇱Polish border https://t.co/zj34BfJQlm

In a series of videos posted on Twitter, tents and campfires can be seen as the police play an announcement warning the migrants that crossing into Poland is only allowed at official crossings.

But the nearest border crossing in Kuznica, in the northeast of Poland, is closed.

The situation marks an escalation in months of migration pressure against Lithuania, Poland and, to a lesser extent, Latvia – the three European Union countries that share a border with Belarus.

Poland accuses Belarus of trying to cause ‘major incident’ as hundreds of migrants attempt to cross border

Svetlana Tikhanovskaya: Personal sacrifice and the fight for Belarus

Svetlana Tikhanovskaya: Belarus opposition leader reveals what happened after disputed election

The migrants are mostly from Iraq and Syria, though some have come from Africa.

On Monday, Poland accused Belarus of trying to cause a violent provocation following reports that hundreds of migrants were attempting to cross the border.

Polish officials said they were prepared to defend the frontier and have increased security measures, deploying more than 12,000 soldiers – up from the 10,000 that were there recently.

Most of the migrants seek to pass through Poland to reach Germany and other western European countries.

Germany’s outgoing interior minister, Horst Seehofer, said on Tuesday that all EU countries “must stand together, because [Belarusian President Alexander] Lukashenko is using people’s fates with the support of Russian President Vladimir Putin to destabilise the West”.

He called for the European Commission to support Poland in securing the border.

“The Poles have reacted correctly so far,” Mr Seehofer said.

“We cannot criticise them for securing the EU’s external border with admissible means… the Poles are fulfilling a very important service for the whole of Europe.”

Mr Seehofer’s deputy, Stephan Mayer, told Bild that “Germany could send police very promptly to support Poland if Poland wants that”.

So far Poland’s ruling nationalists have refused help from Frontex, the EU’s border agency.

Related posts:

Myanmar’s military to pay lobbyist $2m to explain ‘real situation’ to US Dozens dead after school bus plunges into ravine in Indonesia Belgium dump holders Portugal out of Euro 2020 – after Czech Republic stun Netherlands World champions France knocked out of Euro 2020 by Switzerland Brazil to send troops back to Amazon to fight deforestation Mexico’s methane leak rate ‘alarming and worrying’ for climate change, report warns Ireland’s long wait for Olympic gold ends with ‘tremendous’ victory in double sculls Bomb blast at Kabul mosque leaves a ‘number of civilians dead’ ‘Sexist’ rule requiring female handball players to wear bikinis scrapped Sewage and informal settlements are choking Brazil’s Amazonian waterways Who to believe as West and Russia wage information war over Ukraine West and Russia wage information war over Ukraine