Poland’s government is planning to build a permanent wall on its border with Belarus in response to growing numbers of people from the Middle East, Asia and Africa seeking to cross. On Friday, the Polish authorities registered a daily record of 601 attempted illegal crossings, following thousands in August and September.
During a parliamentary debate on extending the state of emergency that the government has implemented at the border, interior minister Mariusz Kamiński pledged that the country’s eastern frontier will have “the most modern security” in Europe.
“It will be impenetrable,” he told parliament amid applause from the national-conservative ruling Law and Justice (PiS) party’s benches.
Poland says its policies on the Belarus border, where it has banned media and NGOs and is pushing back migrants, have EU support.
But the @EU_Commission has warned Warsaw that it must respect the law and has urged it to give access to the EU border agency https://t.co/Cht1Xjcxrs
— Notes from Poland 🇵🇱 (@notesfrompoland) October 3, 2021
Later, Kamiński told wPolityce that the new border wall would be “much higher than the current one,” which is a 2.5-metre razor-wire fence erected as an emergency measure in response to this summer’s surge in crossings. He compared the planned installation to that on the Greek-Turkish border.
The minister said the government has “analysed” approaches across Europe – including in Greece, Hungary, Serbia and Spain – as well as the “field conditions and the needs of the border guard” in Poland.
“We are finishing the technical specification and calculating how much it will cost,” he added, noting that funds had already been earmarked for the project.
Greece erects a fence at its border with Turkey amid warnings of many Afghan civilians fleeing their country & the Taliban https://t.co/NjpTbQQGim
— Victoria Derbyshire (@vicderbyshire) August 21, 2021
Kamiński also said that technology would be deployed to bolster border protection, including through a perimeter system of motion sensors and thermal cameras. “With each attempt, the information will be sent to our guards instantly, and they will react immediately,” he said.
In summer, neighbouring Lithuania, which has also faced a surge in crossings from Belarus, said it would build a 508km wall along its border with Belarus by September next year. The fence will be three metres high and topped with razor wire and cost more than €152 million.
As well as constructing its razor-wire fence, Poland has deployed 4,000 border guards and 25,000 soldiers to strengthen its frontier with Belarus, reports Gazeta Wyborcza. On Thursday, parliament approved the extension of the state of emergency at the border for another 60 days.
Polls show that a majority of the Polish public support the government’s policies at the border, including the state of emergency. However, most also favour ending the current ban on the media visiting the area.
Human rights groups and some legal experts have, however, accused the Polish authorities of violating international law by pushing people back across the border. They have also condemned the government’s as policies as inhumane, especially the fact that it has pushed back large numbers of children.
The government argues that it has an obligation to protect the border and prevent illegal crossings. It has also presented material it claims shows that a significant proportion of those crossing have extremist views and, in some cases, terrorist links. That evidence has, however, been questioned by some experts.
Main image credit: Combat Camera Poland/Flickr (under CC BY-NC 2.0)
Maria Wilczek is deputy editor of Notes from Poland. She is a regular writer for The Times, The Economist and Al Jazeera English, and has also featured in Foreign Policy, Politico Europe, The Spectator and Gazeta Wyborcza.
