WARSAW (AFP) — Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk on Tuesday accused Russia of attempts to smuggle thousands of migrants from Africa to Poland to destabilize Europe.

The accusation was made following Tusk’s announcement that it will build fortifications along the border with Russia, Belarusia and Kaliningrad to foil the migrants smuggling.

“It is the Russian state, not some murky business, that is behind the organization of the recruitment, transport and attempts to smuggle thousands of people” into Europe, Tusk said.

He listed Somalia, Eritrea, Yemen, and Ethiopia as countries where Russia seeks to “recruit” migrants to send them to the Polish border by flying them through “one of the Arab countries” to Moscow.

“Currently, several places have been located in Russia, where large groups of migrants organized in this way are concentrated,” Tusk said, citing information from services of allied countries, without providing further details.

“More than 90 percent of those who cross the Polish border illegally are people with Russian visas,” he added.

Poland in 2022 erected five-meter-high metal fence along 186 kilometers of its border with Belarus to deter migrants, equipping it with thousands of cameras and motion sensors.

Similar measures have been put in place along its border with Russia.

According to the Polish border guard agency, over 13,000 attempts to cross the border from Belarus have been detected this year.