Poland has denied that a pregnant Eritrean woman gave birth alone on the Poland-Belarus border after activists said soldiers “pushed her back”.
Deputy Interior Minister Maciej Duszczyk told the BBC that the woman arrived at the Polish border with her newborn and was taken to hospital.
But activists said she had previously tried to enter Poland and stayed in the forested border area for a month.
The new Polish government has promised a more “humanitarian” border policy.
But activists say Polish border guards continue to push back migrants trying to cross the border from Belarus. Poland accuses Belarus of encouraging the flow of refugees as an act of “hybrid warfare.”
Mr Duszczyk said it was virtually impossible for a woman to live in the forest and give birth alone for a month in very cold temperatures.
He said border guards took her to the hospital in Hajnówka, near the border, when they found her.
However, Adam Barwiński of Grupa Granica – an organization of activists and human rights activists who help people cross the border – told the BBC that the 38-year-old woman told the organization that after crossing the border fence she approached Polish soldiers about this but I was refused entry to Poland.
Mr Barwiński said the woman, who did not want to be named, also told them that she had been traveling for many years “looking for a safe place” and that she had done so before arriving from Belarus After reaching the Polish border, he spent several years in refugee camps in Ethiopia, Kenya and Uganda. She gave birth to her child alone in the forest, said Grupa Granica.
“This drama must end, no one should be forced to give birth in such circumstances,” said Mr Barwiński.
On Saturday, activists said she had left the hospital and was in an apartment with her baby.
Mr. Duszczyk denied that Donald Tusk’s government was continuing to implement countermeasures, saying its top priority was “zero deaths at the border.”
“When the Eritrean mother and her child were picked up by soldiers at the border and taken to hospital, she applied for international protection and we initiated the procedure under EU law,” he said
“We are doing our best to help teenagers and women and since January this year we have received 350 migrants who have applied for international protection,” he added.
In January, more than 100 NGOs and 500 activists and cultural figures called on Mr. Tusk to end the pushbacks, saying his government would condone human rights abuses if it did not.
However, activist Iwo Los, also from Grupa Granica, said the practice would continue.
His organization said border patrol agents have pushed back more than 1,700 people since December. About 25 of these people are still missing and five are confirmed to have died, it said.
Mr. Duszczyk said the Polish government was facing an “organized, instrumentalized migration war” being waged by Belarus.
Poland claims that since 2021, Belarus has been encouraging people from the Middle East and Africa to travel to Belarus and then illegally cross the border into Poland.
In 2021, the European Union accused Belarus’ authoritarian leader, President Alexander Lukashenko, of facilitating the influx in retaliation for sanctions.
“We are trying to combine security with humanity while saving our border in accordance with EU law,” said Duszczyk.