Polish army erected border fence with Belarus to stop migrants

The Polish military has started erecting a chain link fence along its border with Belarus prevent migrants from entering the territory of the European Union.

2.5 meters high, it will be 180 kilometers long, which is equivalent to about half of the forested border between these two countries.

Dozens of soldiers were busy working on the fence in the small border town of Krynky on Friday. “Considering the situation, it is necessary”, told the agency AFP Magda, a 31-year-old city dweller, for whom Migrants can continue to seek asylum at official border posts.

“We see the work of the border police, the effort they are making to control the situation,” he added. But for Marek Epler, 66-year-old retiree, “the fence, the posts they put in place, they will flow with the rain ”.

In recent months, thousands of Migrants, mostly from the Middle East, tried to cross the borders of Belarus with Latvia, Lithuania and Poland, countries in the east of the European Union.

The EU suspects that the The Belarusian regime is directing migrants to its borders in retaliation for the sanctions it has imposed on it. Poland and the Baltic states called the events a “hybrid attack” and promised to close the border to prevent the entry of migrants.

Polish border police claimed on Friday that since In early August, 3,059 people attempted to enter the country, 55 in the last 24 hours alone. In this context, Poland doubled the military contingent in the region to 2,000 troops.

A group of migrants, which according to an NGO on the ground, comes from Afghanistan, have been stranded for about three weeks at the border. Polish authorities say they are camping a few inches from the territory of Poland.

They are prevented from entering Poland, where they could apply for asylum, because the government considers that this would be yielding to the “blackmail” of the Belarusian leader Alexander Lukashenko.

The United Nations Refugee Agency, the Council of Europe and the European Court of Human Rights urged Poland to provide humanitarian aid to migrants, but the authorities argue that he cannot help them without the consent of Belarus.

(With information from AFP)

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