Anna Michalska, a spokeswoman for the border guard, said soldiers at the border had told them there could be more dead.
Polish officials were searching wetlands on the border with Belarus today after three bodies were found in an area where thousands of migrants from the Middle East and Africa are trying to enter the European Union.
The death of a Yemeni doctor near the border, where winter temperatures often drop below freezing, was confirmed on 7 January.
The identities of the other two – who were found yesterday Thursday and today – have not yet been confirmed, but were likely migrants, according to Grupa Granica, a coalition of NGOs that help people at the border.
Anna Michalska, a spokeswoman for the border guard, said soldiers at the border had told them there could be more dead.
“There may be more bodies, so we are searching the area. Police, border guards and the military are involved in the investigation,” he said.
Migrants have been flocking to the border since August 2021, when Belarus, a close ally of Russia, opened travel agencies in the Middle East offering a new unofficial route to Europe – in a move the EU said was intended to put pressure on it.
While travel agencies have since closed, migrants continue to head to Belarus in the hope of crossing into EU member state Poland, which is also hosting more than 1.5 million refugees from Ukraine, after Russia invaded Ukraine almost a year ago.
Warsaw has built a 5.5m high steel fence equipped with electronic sensors on its border with Belarus to try to stem the flow, but this has not stopped people from approaching the border.
The border guard has recorded 530 attempts to cross from Belarus already this year and Grupa Granica has received 121 calls for help and assisted 84 people.
For some, the journey proved fatal.
Since August 2021, 14 people have died on the Polish side of the border, according to the border guard. Grupa Granica estimates the death toll at 33.
“In total, we have received alerts for 200 missing persons. Sometimes we find people in guarded detention centers run by the border guard, sometimes bodies are found,” Grupa Granica spokeswoman Alexandra Loboda told Reuters.
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