Polish border guards opened fire against refugees at the Polish-Belarusian border. Video footage released by the armed guards themselves on TikTok shows the migrants fighting back by throwing stones at the heavily fortified border.

The Polish parliament has passed a law that will allow border guards to use military weapons against migrants. The Polish government claims that the law changes are necessary to secure the country and its eastern borders against the growing number of undocumented migrants.

The forests between Poland and Belarus are described as a “death zone” by refugee rights organizations, characterized by “extreme temperatures, dense forests and swamps.” Polish border guards said they had prevented almost 100,000 attempts to cross the border since 2021.