On August 16, Border Guard officers from Zgorzelec, while on duty near the A4 motorway, selected a Renault van with Polish registration plates for a roadside check. – The vehicle’s driver ignored the signals to stop and began moving away from the officers at high speed, heading toward the border with Germany – reports Second Lieutenant Paweł Biskupik of the Border Guard, spokesperson for the Nadodrzański Border Guard Unit.Paweł Biskupik, spokesperson for the Nadodrzański Border Guard Unit.
The officers gave chase. Spokesperson: – The van driver disregarded traffic regulations and paid no heed to the danger he was creating for other road users. He crossed the border with Germany at high speed via the former border crossing at Jędrzychowice.
The border guards managed to stop the vehicle about 25 km from the Polish-German border. Border Guard Second Lieutenant P. Biskupik:
The perpetrator immediately fled into a nearby forest, leaving eighteen foreigners in the vehicle’s cargo area. Zgorzelec officers secured the scene until their colleagues from the German police arrived, and helped the foreigners get out of the vehicle and move to a safe distance from the motorway. German police officers from the unit in Ludwigsdorf, who had been notified of the incident, immediately began searching for the fugitive.
He adds: – When the detainees’ identities were checked, it turned out that thirteen Syrian citizens and five Iraqis had been smuggled in the van’s cargo area.
Further proceedings in the case are being conducted by the German police in Ludwigsdorf.