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Polish minister links reopening of border crossings to Minsk policies
Tomasz Siemoniak
April 19, Pozirk. Poland may reopen border checkpoints if Minsk modifies its policies towards Warsaw, Polish Interior Minister Tomasz Siemoniak has told journalists after visiting the Bobrowniki border checkpoint at the shared border with Belarus.
Warsaw closed down Bobrowniki in February 2023, following a lengthy prison sentence passed in Minsk against journalist and Polish minority activist Andrzej Poczobut. It linked its reopening to Poczobut’s release. The checkpoint in Kuźnica was closed in 2021 over irregular border crossings by third-country foreigners via Belarus.
“As long as there is no change of policy on the part of Belarus, we will firmly protect our border and security will be a priority,” wnp.pl reports, quoting Siemoniak as saying.
Siemoniak also stressed that nothing would change as long as Belarus keeps supporting hybrid aggression at the border, which has a negative impact on social and economic life.
This statement referred to the ongoing migration crisis at the border between the European Union and Belarus that started in 2021, when Alaksandar Łukašenka, angered by EU sanctions, had indicated that Minsk would not prevent asylum seekers from Africa and Asia from using Belarus as a route to the EU.
Poland remains the major target of illegal migration. Since the start of 2025, the country thwarted about 5,000 irregular crossings by foreigners via Belarus, according to Pozirk’s analysis of border guards’ data.
Poland suspects Belarusian security agencies of organizing and facilitating illegal migration at the border, Siemoniak said earlier this year.
Warsaw had introduced a no-go zone and restricted migrants’ right to apply for asylum at the border with Belarus.
