Poland plans to build a fence along its border with Belarus and deploy more soldiers there to stop migrants seeking to enter the European Union nation, reported AP. The government on Monday also offered to send humanitarian aid to a migrant group stuck at the border for more than two weeks.
Poland and the three Baltic states — Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia — accuse Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko of sending migrants from Afghanistan and Iraq across their borders, which are also the European Union’s external border. They say that’s part of Belarus’s “hybrid war” against the EU. Meanwhile, political tensions have been growing in Poland over 30 migrants stuck on the border with Belarus. On Monday, Poland said it was ready to send food, medicine and other humanitarian help to the group, which it says is in Belarusian territory. The migrants are mostly from Afghanistan and Iraq. All four EU nations believe the surge in migrants is Minsk’s revenge for the EU’s sanctions against the autocratic regime in Belarus. All four EU nations believe the surge in migrants is Minsk’s revenge for the EU’s sanctions against the autocratic regime in Belarus. The Polish government said last week that 2,100 migrants had tried to enter Poland illegally from Belarus so far in August. Almost 800 of them got in and have been placed in state-run centers.
In response to the migrants’ arrival, Poland said it had deployed over 900 soldiers to the border with Belarus and was reinforcing the border with 150 kilometers (93 miles) of barbed wire.
