Polish President Andrzej Duda has signed a special law on the construction of a fence on the state border, which is an external border of the EU (with Belarus, Russia and Ukraine). This is reported by the Office of the Polish President.
“On November 2nd, the President of Poland Andrzej Duda signed the law of October 29th on construction of the fence at the state border,” noted the presidential administration.
This special law was supported by both chambers of the Polish parliament last week. It envisages the construction of a modern high fence equipped with video monitoring and traffic surveillance systems at a cost of over 1.6 billion zlotys (over $400 million). The implementation of the project will take place outside the tender procedures in an accelerated mode. The project investor will be the chief commandant of the Polish Border Guard.
Polish government spokesman Piotr Müller said that work will start in a few weeks and is expected to be completed in a few months.
Several hundred illegal migrants from the Middle East and Africa are reportedly trying to cross the Polish-Belarusian border every day. Warsaw accuses Minsk of deliberately creating migration pressure on the common border as part of Minsk’s and Moscow’s hybrid actions against Poland and the EU.
A state of emergency has been in effect in Polish localities near the border with Belarus since early September. Polish border guards regularly report provocations on the border by Belarusian services.