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Polish border guards on duty
Photo: Ulf Mauder / dpa
For months, refugees have been trying to get from Belarus to Poland and thus into the EU.
Poland has massively strengthened the border with the neighboring state in order to prevent any unauthorized border crossings as far as possible.
These pushbacks are criticized internationally.
Since the beginning of September there has been a state of emergency in a three-kilometer-wide strip along the border with Belarus.
Non-residents, journalists and aid organizations could not independently check what was going on there.
The state of emergency expires on Wednesday night.
The parliament in Warsaw has now approved a law for the protection of the border, which makes it possible to temporarily restrict freedom of movement and freedom of the press at the EU's external borders with Belarus, Russia and Ukraine.
A clear majority of MPs voted on Tuesday for the amendment by the national conservative ruling party PiS.
Opposition representatives had previously complained that the PiS government wanted to permanently block the access of critical journalists to the border region.
The amendment to the law now provides that in the future the Minister of the Interior can forbid all non-residents from entering a border area defined by him in the event of a dangerous situation.
The local border guard commander should decide on exceptions - especially for journalists.
The law now has to be signed by President Andrzej Duda.
svs / dpa
