Poland to build fence on Belarus border to “protect from terrorists”

Poland will build a fence along its border with Belarus in an effort to curb the recent surge in illegal crossings, mainly by people from Iraq and Afghanistan. Warsaw and Brussels have accused Minsk of deliberately facilitating the passage of migrants into the European Union.

Speaking at the border today, defence minister Mariusz Błaszczak announced that the 150 kilometres of barbed wire the army recently installed had proved “too weak”. Instead, work would begin this week on building a 2.5-metre-high fence that would “constitute a solid barrier”.

“I will be criticised by the politically correct, [but] a migration crisis is followed by terrorist attacks,” said Błaszczak, quoted by Rzeczpospolita. “What has happened in Belgium and France is caused by the migration crisis. We will protect Poland from those consequences.”

The minister also said that the fence would help prevent human traffickers from exploiting migrants who are being deliberately flown to Belarus with the aim of crossing into the EU.

“We know very well that the Lukashenko regime is linked to the Kremlin,” said Błaszczyk, referring to the Belarusian president. “Undoubtedly, what is happening in Minsk is connected to Russia.”

Błaszczak also revealed that he would more than double the number of soldiers stationed along the border. Last week, he dispatched 900 troops, and this will now increase to 2,000.

So far this month, the Polish authorities have recorded over 2,000 people attempting to illegally cross the border from Belarus. A majority have been prevented from doing so, but hundreds have also been detained on the Polish side (compared to only 120 in the whole of 2020).

Lithuania, which has also received record numbers of illegal crossings this year, today likewise confirmed plans to build a four-metre tall fence along its 500-kilometre border with Belarus. The €152m project is due to be completed within a year, reports LRT.

At the weekend, Greece announced that it had installed a further 40 kilometres of fencing along its border with Turkey to prevent a potential surge of illegal crossings by people fleeing Afghanistan.

The Polish-Belarusian border is around 400 kilometres long. During his announcement, Błaszczak did not confirm how much of that length would be covered by the wall, and what the estimated cost would be.

Speaking separately today, deputy foreign minister Marcin Przydacz denied claims by opposition figures and human rights groups that the Polish authorities have been illegally pushing migrants back across the border into Belarus.

“From our perspective, these are economic migrants from the Middle East legally staying in Belarus,” said Przydacz, quoted by Onet. “They are not on the Polish side [of the border], so it is not possible to push anyone back. [But] it is [also] not possible to cross the border illegally.”

Main image credit: Combat Camera Poland/Flickr (under CC BY-NC 2.0)

Daniel Tilles

Daniel Tilles is editor-in-chief of Notes from Poland. He has written on Polish affairs for a wide range of publications, including Foreign Policy, POLITICO Europe, EUobserver and Dziennik Gazeta Prawna.