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Clothing of refugees on the border between Poland and Belarus
Photo: KACPER PEMPEL / REUTERS
On Friday, the Polish parliament finally gave the go-ahead for the construction of a controversial fortified border system on the border with Belarus.
The national conservative government in Warsaw is reacting to the increased influx of refugees with the project, which cost around 353 million euros.
President Andrzej Duda is expected to put the law into effect with his signature in the next few days.
The border barrier should extend over a length of more than 100 kilometers along the eastern EU external border.
Since August, thousands of people seeking protection - mostly from the Middle East and Africa - have tried to cross the Polish border from Belarus.
Warsaw had already stationed thousands of soldiers at the border in the past few weeks, erected a barbed wire fence, declared a state of emergency in the border area and legalized so-called pushbacks.
The EU is assuming that the influx of refugees will be a retaliatory action by the Belarusian ruler Alexander Lukashenko for the sanctions decisions taken in Brussels.
It is believed that the Belarusian authorities are purposefully smuggling the refugees to the EU borders.
The number of people arriving in Germany via Belarus has also increased.
As the Federal Police Headquarters announced at the beginning of the week, more than 4,200 people have illegally entered from Belarus since the end of September alone.
The focus of illegal entries is the German-Polish border.
Poland and eleven other EU member states last week asked the EU to help finance border barriers at their borders.
EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen turned against new "barbed wire fences and walls" at EU borders.
Eight dead at the border
In view of the approaching winter, aid organizations are warning of a deterioration in the situation of people stuck at the border.
According to the UN refugee agency UNHCR, eight refugees have already died on the border.
The UN has called on the EU and Belarus to find a quick solution for the refugees in the border area.
“It is unacceptable for people to die and the lives of others to be endangered.
You are hostage to a political stalemate that must now be resolved, ”Pascale Moreau, UNHCR's Regional Director for Europe, said last week.
The state of emergency imposed by Poland on the border is also controversial because it prohibits journalists and aid organizations from accessing the border.
EU Interior Commissioner Ylva Johansson had therefore asked Warsaw to open the border areas to the EU border protection agency Frontex.
"There is currently no transparency about what is going on at the border."
mfh / AFP
