WARSAW (AFP) — Poland on Monday announced plans for a
barbed-wire fence along its border with Belarus following an influx of migrants
which countries in the region called a "hybrid attack" on the EU.
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Defense Minister Mariusz Blaszczak said the
fence would be
2.5 meters high and would resemble the one built by Hungary along its border
with Serbia.
"The work will begin next week," Blaszczak said,
adding that it would be built along 130 kilometers of the border — or around a
third of the total distance.
Hungary built a fence along the Serbian border in 2015 and
2016 as Europe grappled with a large increase in migration from Syria.
Blaszczak also said the contingent of Polish soldiers
currently deployed to help border guards would be doubled to 2,000.
"We will oppose the opening of a new route for the
trafficking of migrants through Polish territory," the minister said.
Thousands of migrants — mostly from the Middle East — have
crossed the EU border from Belarus in recent months and Brussels believes the
influx is being deliberately engineered by the regime in Minsk in retaliation
against EU sanctions.
Poland and the three Baltic states of Estonia, Latvia, and
Lithuania earlier on Monday urged the United Nations to take action against
Belarus.
The four prime ministers said in a joint statement that the
influx had been "planned and systematically organized by the regime of
(Belarusian President) Alexander Lukashenko".
"It is high time to bring the issue of abusing migrants
on the Belarusian territory to the attention of the UN, including the United
Nations Security Council," the statement said.
"We urge the UN High Commissioner for Refugees to take
active steps to facilitate the solution of this situation," it said.
The three EU countries that share a land border with Belarus
— Latvia, Lithuania, and Poland — are all trying to block or push back migrants
who attempt illegal crossings.
In many cases, Belarusian authorities reportedly push the
migrants back towards the EU border — which Lukashenko has denied — leading to
several stand-offs.
One such stand-off forced a group of
Afghan migrants onto a
section of the Poland-Belarus border, where they have been stranded for two
weeks at a makeshift encampment.
Polish human rights organizations and the liberal opposition
have accused the populist right-wing government of refusing to help people in
need and violating international rules.
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