Poland Plans Border Wall With Belarus
A new sign, located on the Poland-Belarus border, reads, “Country Border Crossing Prohibited.” (Wikimedia Commons)
The lower house of the Polish legislature authorized the construction of a physical border wall with Belarus on October 14. The project, which will cost more than €350 million, aims to prevent migrants from entering the country via Belarus.
The Polish government blames its open border with Belarus—and Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko—for its recent influx of Middle Eastern and African migrants. Officials claim that Lukashenko had invited migrants to take refuge in the European Union.
“They are being invited by the Lukashenko regime and used by him as weapons and ammunition for political reasons,” said Polish Interior Minister Mariusz Kaminski.
Polish authorities have also accused Minsk and Moscow of using the crisis—described by Polish Deputy Interior Minister Maciej Wąsik as a “hybrid war”—as a method of destabilizing the EU.
“In our opinion, the migration crisis has been going on with Russia’s significant support,” said Stanisław Żaryn, spokesperson of Poland’s Minister-Special Services Coordinator.
The Polish Parliament has extended a state of emergency at the border, where the media may no longer report. While the government claims that migrants pose terrorist risks, the former head of Poland’s Foreign Intelligence Agency Grzegorz Małecki disagrees with this view.
“None of the information provided by the interior ministry indicated that we are dealing with identified members of terrorist organizations,” said Małecki.
Approximately 55 percent of Polish people oppose admitting refugees and migrants to the country; about 47 percent support the border wall. These statistics show a reversal of trends prior to the migrant crisis, when Polish opinion had generally favored refugees.
The border fence, erected by the Polish army, began construction in August. The increase in border security trapped some migrants between the Polish and Belarusian borders.
“A group of 32 people from Afghanistan was left stranded at the border between Poland and Belarus without food, clean water, shelter, and medicine for weeks, despite attempting to claim asylum in Poland,” wrote Amnesty International.
The new border project—which mimics the existing wall along the Greek and Turkish border—reflects broader trends among EU member states. Lithuania intends to follow Poland’s lead, planning to begin the construction of a wall along its own border with Belarus by September.
“This is a new reality against which both border states and the community will be forced to find an answer,” said Pawel Soloch, head of Poland’s National Security Bureau.
The Turkish government has pledged to help Polish and Lithuanian efforts to curb immigration. The Turkish Minister of Foreign Affairs, Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu, tweeted that Poland and Turkey were “developing [their] relations in every field” and that Ankara would “increase cooperation against irregular migration.”