Polish Prime Minister announces ‘breaking up [of] Georgian gangs’ as 17 Georgians deported

Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk has posted on X saying that Poland was ‘effectively breaking up Georgian gangs’, and that deportations ‘have begun’, as a Polish official announced the deportation of 17 Georgian nationals who had a ‘criminal past’ or were living in Poland illegally.

Tusk wrote the post on Wednesday, attaching a video showing Poland’s border police escorting illegal migrants to a plane.

Polish media, which has recently been actively reporting on various crimes allegedly committed by Georgian citizens, reported that Georgians who are supposedly connected to the ‘world of thieves-in-law’ were increasingly engaged in theft, drug and arms trafficking, extortion, and robbery.

Polish Border Service spokesperson Andrzej Juźwiak said on Wednesday that Poland had deported 17 Georgians with a criminal record who had committed theft, ‘overstayed’ in Poland, illegally crossed the state border, or failed to comply with previously adopted decisions obliging them to return.

Juźwiak said this was the first of a series of planned operations of this type and that several more such actions would be carried out in the coming weeks.

According to Polish media, the ‘largest share’ of alleged criminals who were migrants were Georgians who had been engaging in criminal acts, such as robberies or assault, for years.

On 4 February, the head of the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Administration of Poland, Tomasz Siemoniak, declared that ‘brutal organised crime’ carried out by foreigners had returned to Poland, with the Polish weekly Wprost suggesting that he was pointing primarily to Georgians.

‘This is the result of the uncontrolled influx of migrants in recent years’, Siemoniak said.

Wprost quoted Tusk as warning that those who take advantage of Poland’s ‘hospitality and grossly violate the law will be deported from Poland, and in the coming days these decisions will have a practical dimension’.

In mid-February, Newsweek Poland cited the Polish police as saying that Georgian nationals committed 17% of all offences committed by foreigners in Warsaw in 2024 with 532 crimes.

‘Escaped on electric scooters’

Newsweek wrote that in late December, a Georgian gang carried out a jewellery heist in Warsaw, writing that three masked men had entered a jewellery store, ‘gassed the security guard, terrorised the attendant with a gun [or a fake gun], then smashed the display cases with a crowbar’, before escaping on electric scooters.

‘They stole eight Hublot watches and five Rolexes with a total value of 2 million złoty ($500,000)’.

‘Although they were recorded by cameras, so far they have not been identified — they had balaclavas on their faces’.

Newsweek also wrote that in November 2024, police arrested a 32-year-old Georgian man who had allegedly been assaulting elderly women in the capital.

‘He followed them, then assaulted and pushed the seniors down the stairs’, they reported.

One of the most high-profile cases took place in July 2024, when gangs reportedly robbed diamonds belonging to the Belgian company CMRDiamonds NV.

‘The escort was transporting diamonds belonging to the Belgian company CMR Diamonds NV and when he stopped to withdraw the money, the perpetrators punctured a tire on his car with a pick’.

‘Taking advantage of the fact that the driver is busy changing the wheel and the car is open, the perpetrators stole a black leather bag from the diamonds and fled. In addition to the gemstones, they also took €10,000 ($11,000) in cash, a magnifying glass, and a jewelry scale’.

Gazeta Wyborcza reported that in 2024, foreigners committed in total 3,129 crimes — 1,515 were committed by Ukrainians and 532 were committed by Georgians. Reportedly, there are currently 304 Georgians and 1,304 Ukrainians in Polish prisons.

Onet reported in late February that detailed investigations of crimes committed by Georgian citizens were difficult to carry out due to the shortage of official translators, leaving ‘less important’ cases uninvestigated.

The outlet cited the police as saying that ‘many […] Georgian citizens are staying in Poland illegally’, while noting that 77,000 Georgians had crossed into Poland in 2024, ‘some of whom returned to their homeland’.

On Tuesday, WP Wiadomości reported that ‘Polish services are preparing for another, larger deportation action’.

‘Analysing the words of Donald Tusk and the head of the Ministry of Interior and Administration Tomasz Siemoniak, one can assume that these actions may concern citizens of Georgia who are associated with organised crime’, the Polish news outlet wrote.

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