Customs redirects traffic, adds staff to remaining checkpoints after Poland’s closure of border crossing

February 11, BPN. Belarusian customs says it is switching to a different operating mode as the Polish government has closed the Bierastavica-Bobrowniki border crossing.

On February 10, the State Customs Committee’s press office said the committee redirected some traffic and assigned additional staff to the remaining open checkpoints at the Polish and Lithuanian border.

Poland’s “ill-considered” move will primarily hurt Polish carriers and ordinary citizens, it added.

According to customs officers, about 30 percent of lorries and 40 percent of passenger cars going to Poland passed through Bierastavica.

The customs committee now forecasts “a significant increase in the load” on the two remaining crossings: Kazłovičy (lorries) and Brest (passengers). Meanwhile, “the flow coming from the Polish side will be partly redistributed to the Lithuanian checkpoints, in particular, to the nearby Pryvałka,” it said.

Earlier this week, Warsaw closed the major crossing until further notice, citing security interests.

This came after a Belarusian court sentenced a reporter of Polish origin, Andrzej Poczobut (Andrej Pačobut), to eight years’ imprisonment. The Polish Sejm called the sentence “the culmination of the Belarusian authorities’ repression against the Polish minority in Belarus that has been ongoing since early 2021.”