Poland tightens controls on border with Belarus

Thick concrete blocks block the access road to the Polowce-Peschatka border crossing in northeastern Poland. Each weighs 1.7 tons. "Not even two tanks could move them away," says a Polish border guard, not without pride.

A lot of barbed wire has been stretched between the concrete barriers. Behind is a narrow path that winds along a 5.5-meter (18-foot) high border fence. The cameras, heat sensors, underground cables — everything is very modern. Officially, no one can cross the border here anymore. The checkpoint has been closed since the summer of 2023.

Border guards expect more people to start arriving in spring when it warms upImage: Alexandra von Nahmen/DW

A 186-km border fence

Poland has reacted to the increasing number of people trying to cross its border with Belarussince August 2021 by building a fence with an electronic surveillance system that stretches over 186 kilometers (116 miles).

Migrants and refugees are thought to have been encouraged and supported by the regime in the Belarusian capital Minsk, one of Russia's closest partners.

"The biggest threat we currently face here is irregular migration orchestrated by Belarus," said Colonel Andrzej Stasiulewicz, deputy commander of the Podlaski Border Guard Division. He explained that people arrived legally in Belarus from Afghanistan, Syria or Iraq and were then taken to the border with Poland for $8,000 to $12,000 (ca. €7,775 to 11,650).

Stasiulewicz used surveillance videos to show DW how this works in practice. One showed a Belarusian officer dropping off a group of people at night, directly at the border, at a place where there is only barbed wire. But there is a river that forms a natural border between Poland and Belarus.

Another video showed people on the Belarusian side of the border throwing stones and burning branches at the border fence. "Belarus wants the situation to escalate," said Stasiulewicz. "We want to deescalate."

The Polish army has also been deployed to the border with BelarusImage: Alexandra von Nahmen/DW

Human rights activists criticize buffer zone

Is the fence helping? Yes, said the Polish border guards in Polowce. They also praised the buffer zone that had been set up in the border region. The aim is to prevent human traffickers from getting close to the border and picking up migrants at agreed meeting points.

Human rights organizations have criticized the buffer zone, saying that it also makes it difficult for them to access people who might be stranded in the forest for reasons of injury or illness and in need of medical assistance. 

There have been repeated attempts to saw through sections of the fence. Brigadier General Robert Bagan, the commander-in-chief of the Polish Border Guard, picked up a small thin saw that had been confiscated at the border and explained that if larger battery-operated devices were used, the fence could be cut in six to eight minutes.

Last year, almost 30,000 people tried to cross the border into Poland from Belarus, despite the ongoing modernization of the barriers and fences.

According to official figures, more than 2,685 people applied for asylum. A center has been set up in Polowce to process the applications. There is a small family there with a play corner for children. But most of those arriving here are men travelling alone.

Pushbacks are 'cruel and dangerous'

Organizations such as Amnesty International have accused the Polish authorities of violating the human rights of refugees and migrants and have criticized "pushbacks" into Belarus.

"It is cruel and dangerous and obviously illegal to push people back into dense forests in freezing temperatures," Ruth Tanner, deputy director of Amnesty International's Europe Regional Office, told DW. She said that Poland was obliged under international law to examine all people's cases individually.

The Polish government and border guards in the northeast of Poland have rejected the criticism. "Define more precisely what pushbacks are," said Maciej Duszczyk from the Polish Ministry of the Interior.

When pressed, Brigadier General Bagan told DW that every border guard was obliged to ask people entering the country about whether they were applying for asylum. "But if people say 'no' because they don't want to stay in Poland, then we take them back."

He explained that they were released back into Belarusian territory through a door in the border fence and said there was no other way. He said that it had been impossible to cooperate with the authorities in Belarus for years already.

He said that those who were sent back tried again "sooner or later, as long as there was enough money." He pointed out that funds and the weather were decisive factors, saying that the number of people trying to cross the border would likely rise again from March onwards when the weather got warmer.

This article was translated from German.