The Polish government is considering shutting down the last two open border crossings with Belarus. Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski attributes the potential move to the ongoing high number of migrant arrivals from Belarus.
EU member state Poland might soon close the last two open border crossings with neighboring Belarus, according to reports published earlier this week on Euractiv and the Schengen.News platform.
"We are currently analyzing the consequences of such a decision for the Polish economy and local communities," Poland's Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski said.
The move is attributed to ongoing migration movements via Belarus, which Poland says are orchestrated by Belarusian leader Alexander Lukashenko and Russia, and first started emerging in mid-2021. Since then, Poland has stepped up the fortification of its 400-kilometer-long Belarus border and recently reinstalled a no-go buffer zone to tighten security amid increasing confrontations between authorities and irregular migrants.
Earlier this month, a Polish soldier died after having been stabbed on the border with Belarus. The soldier was allegedly stabbed in the chest by a migrant who reached through a fence erected on the border to prevent illegal crossings.
"It is particularly shocking that the functionaries of the Belarusian state instruct these people how to beat Polish soldiers and Polish border guards even when our guys are wearing bulletproof vests. This is completely unacceptable," Sikorski said.
Exiled Belarusian opposition leader Svetlana Tikhanovskaya called on Poland to not close the border crossings, Schengen.News reported.
Poland has six border crossings with Belarus, two of which are currently open.
Read more: Poland: 'Things are getting worse at the border', say activists
Nearly 150,000 attempts to cross into the EU
A recent analysis by Deutsche Welle shows that migrants have made nearly 150,000 attempts to cross into either Poland, Lithuania or Latvia from Belarus since 2021.
Nearly 100,000 of those crossing attempts were recorded on the Poland border, followed by Latvia with around 25,000 attempts and Lithuania with 22,000. It's important to note that one person could have attempted the crossing several times.
The three EU and NATO member states have spent hundreds of millions of euros to secure their borders with barbed-wire fences equipped with thousands of cameras and motion sensors. The countries have also increased the number of soldiers and border guards stationed at their borders with Belarus.
Poland's plans to redeploy its buffer zone comes in addition to the country's Shield-East project, which includes fortifications along some 700 kilometers of Poland's border with Russian exclave Kaliningrad and Belarus.
The project, estimated to cost 2.35 billion euros, is set to be completed in 2028.
Polish-Belarus border crisis
Western countries have long accused the Belarusian leadership of trying to destabilize the EU by smuggling migrants across the Polish border. Belarusian ruler Lukashenko has repeatedly rejected the accusations.
Starting in August 2021, large numbers of mainly Middle Eastern migrants began crossing into the EU from Belarus, resulting in thousands becoming stranded in border regions for months and sparking a humanitarian crisis.
Some were exposed to freezing weather conditions for weeks. NGO Human Rights Watch recently estimated that at least 55 migrants have died in the border region since August 2021.
Read more: 'You shouldn't be attached to life to come here': Tales from the Polish-Belarusian border