Poland will on Thursday re-establish a buffer zone at part of its border with Belarus to deter migration, the Polish Government announced on Monday.
Warsaw accuses Moscow and Minsk of orchestrating an influx of African migrants through Belarus into Poland. The buffer zone is intended to make illegal border crossings more difficult and provide better working conditions for the border guard, army and police, Prime Minister Donald Tusk said.
According to the Polish Interior Minister Czslaw Mroczek, the zone will span “the two areas where we have the most crossings,” roughly “about sixty kilometres.”
“For about 45 kilometres, it’s a zone roughly 200 metres deep,” he said. In areas containing nature reserves, the zone may be deeper but “not more than 2 kilometres.”
Poland and Belarus share a border over 400 kilometres long. Poland built a 5.5-metre high fence there in 2022.
In 2021, the Polish government also set up a buffer zone there.
