stop there Poland’s Defense Minister on Wednesday announced the construction of a barrier along the border with the Russian enclave of Kaliningrad to prevent migrants from crossing illegally. Movements orchestrated by Russia, according to Warsaw. 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 are starting to build a temporary barrier there,” Minister 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 equipment. Work has begun on this 210-kilometer land border.
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 common practice of pushback employed by Poland, around a hundred attempts to cross the Polish-Belarusian border illegally, mostly by migrants from the Middle East, are reported daily by border guards and NGOs operating in the square.