Poland Building Migration Wall Near Belarus
By Stefan J. Bos Chief International Correspondent Worthy News
WARSCHAU (Worthy News)— Poland has begun constructing a wall along its border with Belarus to stop migrants from entering the European Union country as concerns rise over a new refugee crisis in the region.
Construction workers with heavy machinery started work on the $394 million over the weekend to end what the EU calls a “hybrid attack.”
Reporters were allowed Thursday to see the work in the village of Tolcza, near the closed border crossing of Kuznica in eastern Poland.
The Polish border guard said the barrier would measure 186 kilometers (115 miles), almost half the length of the border shared by the two countries, and reach up to 5.5 meters (18 feet).
It will be equipped with motion detectors and thermal cameras.
Poland has accused Belarus’s autocratic president, Alexander Lukashenko, of deliberately provoking a new refugee crisis. He allegedly organized moving people from the Middle East to Minsk, promising safe passage to the EU.
The police were revenge for Brussels’s sanctions on its authoritarian regime and its reported human rights abuses.
Thousands of asylum seekers, mainly from Syria, Iraqi Kurdistan, and Afghanistan, were caught crossing the Polish frontier. Many were violently pushed back to Belarus by Poland’s border guards, according to rights investigators and migrants.
Hundreds of families were trapped in the forest between the two countries during a frigid winter.
At least 19 people have reportedly died since the beginning of the border standoff between Poland and Belarus.
Most of them passed away from exposure to freezing temperatures, according to sources familiar with the situation.
In recent months thousands of people were escorted by Belarusian security forces to Poland, leading to a tense standoff with Polish forces.
Eastern EU Countries like Hungary have also built walls to push back migrants, including many asylum seekers from war-torn nations.
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