Polish Minister of the interior Mariusz Kamiński presented the details of the construction of a barrier on the Polish-Belarusian border. He emphasized that the barrier would be one of the more important elements to decisively limit mass illegal migration to Poland.
The border barrier will be 180 kilometers long, and feature 5-meter-tall (16 feet) steel columns topped by half-meter tall barbed wire coils (the barrier will have a total height of 5.5 meters). The barrier will also be equipped with motion sensors and both day and night surveillance systems. Additionally, a new group of officers will support the Border Guard as the government will dedicate 750 positions to strengthen the border.
The government estimates that the wall and its auxiliary infrastructure will cost over 1.6 billion zloty (€350 million). The construction of the barrier should start as early as this year and will be finished in mid-2022, minister Kamiński declared.
Kamiński explained that the barrier was a solution based on other similar ones throughout the world. Sixty other countries in the world had border barriers designed to limit illegal migration, such as the Untied States, Greece, Spain, Bulgaria, Slovenia, and Hungary. He added that the Baltic States would also construct their own border barriers — both Lithuania and Latvia, as well as Estonia on its border with Russia.
Kamiński declared that the barrier which will be erected on the border with Belarus “is actually a symbol of the determination of the Polish state to restrict mass illegal migration to Polish territory.”
“I would like to emphasize that this illegal migration in our country is not the result of natural reasons as it often happens throughout the world when political and armed conflicts and natural disasters take place in border states and regions,” he underlined.
The minister stressed that Poland was dealing with an element of hybrid warfare carried out by the Belarusian government with a political objective, with the aim to destabilize Poland and the EU. Belarus will continue to push illegal immigrants towards Poland to realize this goal.
“Our state will not permit any illegal migration route to run to Europe through Poland,” he stated.
