Poland pushes migrants back to Belarus through fence gates – border committee

November 6, BPN. Poland only uses the gates in the border fence with Belarus to push migrants out, State Border Committee spokesman Anton Byčkoŭski told the Belarus One television channel’s “Panorama” show on November 5.

“Since the installation of the fence, Belarusian border guards have never observed the use of the gates for their intended purpose [to let the migrating animals through]. They are constantly closed,” he said. “Belarus has repeatedly recorded instances when the Polish military tried to push the refugees into our territory through these gates.”

The spokesman for the ministry said that since the beginning of the year, Polish troops have made 1,300 attempted pushbacks.

Poland began erecting the barrier on the border with Belarus in late January 2022 and completed the project in early October. The fence made of five-meter high metal sections, topped with 50 centimeters of barbed wire, stretches 186 km along the border in the Lublin and Podlaskie voivodeships. By the fence, there is a cable that activates an alarm when crossed.

Alaksandr Łukašenka has repeatedly criticized Western neighbors for creating barriers on the border with Belarus. On May 9, he accused the Polish authorities of not allowing anyone to enter the Polish-Belarusian border area, claiming that there are dozens or even hundreds of graves of those killed and buried by the security forces in the woods.

On September 1, Łukašenka addressed the European neighbors by saying: “There is no need to fence yourselves off with sanctions and steel fences to please Washington to your own detriment. You can’t fence yourself off in today’s world.” He said that it takes migrants only a few minutes to overcome the fence, and that construction was started in order to syphon off the money.

Fences are viewed as a measure to overcome the migration crisis at the border between Belarus and the EU, which began in the spring of 2021. The leaders of the Baltic States and Poland blame the Belarusian authorities for the trouble, while Minsk blames it on the West’s meddling in the migrants’ homelands.