Poland’s defense minister on Wednesday announced the construction of a barrier along the border with the Russian enclave of Kaliningrad to prevent the illegal crossing of migrants, which Warsaw says was orchestrated by Russia.
Poland has already erected a physical and electronic barrier along its border with Belarus, an ally of Russia, and has accused the Belarusian regime of letting in migrants hoping to reach the European Union, which Minsk denies.
After the launch of flights connecting the Middle East and North Africa with Kaliningrad, “I decided to take measures to increase security at the border with the Kaliningrad enclave. We’re starting to build a temporary barrier there,” Mariusz Blaszczak told reporters.
According to him, the barrier will consist of three parallel barbed wire fences 2.5 meters high and 3 meters wide, as well as electronic devices.
Work on this 210-kilometer land border starts “today,” he stressed.
In September 2021, to prevent a migration crisis that Poland sees as an anti-Poland “hybrid war” between Russia and Belarus, Warsaw imposed a zone about three kilometers wide and more than 400 kilometers long on its border with Belarus.
This area has been banned to all non-residents, including members of NGOs helping migrants and journalists.
Since this measure was lifted last July, it is still forbidden to get within 200 meters of this border, which has since been protected by a metal barrier five meters high, while it is being equipped with cameras and motion detectors. .
Despite the usual practice of pushback used by Poland, about 100 attempts to cross the Polish-Belarusian border by migrants mainly from the Middle East are reported daily by border guards and NGOs operating in the square.