Since 2022, Poland has been working on a five-meter steel and barbed-wire wall, with the purposing of blocking out illegal migrants during the Belarus-European Union border crisis, in an attempt against Russia’s and Belarus’s “hybrid war” through illegal migration— with the purpose of ushering migrants into Poland is a push to pressure the EU over sanctions, says Poland.
In 2021, the crisis had directed tens of thousands of migrants to Poland’s border, many of whom had reportedly received visas for direct flights from the Middle East and Africa to Moscow or Minsk. From there, they were transported by buses to the Polish border.
Despite Belarus’s denial, Poland has said that it plans to finish the wall and close the border with Belarus by next summer.
It is 400 kilometers long and 5.5 meters tall, and will include night vision cameras, thermal imagers, and a new patrol road. The five-meter steel fence built in 2022 will be reinforced.
Last May, tensions rose after a Polish border guard was badly injured by a migrant using a makeshift spear through the fence.
Poland’s PM Donald Tusk said after that that there are plans to create a 200-meter-wide buffer zone along the border.
The entire project will cost over 2.5 billion zlotys — $611 million.
Legal border crossings will remain open, as they have been before.Illegal border crossings in the forest will be closed as before.
