Poland's border fence with Belarus 'leaky,' says internal report

By Jo Harper

WARSAW (AA) - The fence along the Polish-Belarusian border is "leaky," having been crossed 30,000 times since the beginning of the year, including by 13,000 people who then made their way to Germany, according to an internal border guard report.

The document, obtained by the Polish daily Gazeta Wyborcza, was prepared by the Analytical and Situational Office of the Border Guard, and presented data covering January-September 2023.

The 15-foot-high (3-meter) fence is topped with razor wire and runs 116 miles (190 kms) along the border. Finished a year ago, it is intended to stop migrants illegally crossing the border from Belarus.

Berlin and Warsaw have both said they were considering border controls over rising fears of migrants entering Germany from Poland.

The report shows a total of about 30,000 people crossed the barrier on the Polish-Belarusian border, with about 17,000 detained by border guards and over 12,000 managing to evade them.

Figures on total crossings were gathered from sensors placed on the fence, while German services provided the data on entry to Germany. People who made it to Germany had previously stayed in Russia or Belarus, documented with border control stamps and photos, according to the report.

It also shows that the fence holds back no more than 60% of migrants who want to get through. "In July, on a record day, 300 people crossed the barrier, of which as many as 160 were unable to be stopped," the daily states.

The situation only began to change this month, when additional forces were sent to the frontier, bolstering the previous number of soldiers from just over 1,000 to over three times as many.

"You can cut the fence with an ordinary hand-held metal saw, because its (rods) are made of aluminum and are hollow inside. They can also be easily bent, e.g. with a car jack," according to the report, which noted that there were at least 1,000 cases of such damage.

It also said that the fence goes less than a meter deep into the ground, meaning it can be tunneled under.

Earlier this week, Poland's Defense Ministry posted a video on X showing a group of migrants tearing down a part of the border fences. The video was from November 2021, when the Belarus-Poland border was the scene of a migration crisis.

"Attacks on the Polish border carried out by Belarus were aimed at destabilizing the situation in Poland and endangering the security of Poles. Thanks to the increased presence of the Polish army on the border, the Russian-Belarusian plan failed," read the post.

- Polish premier vows to veto new EU pact on migration

Meanwhile, Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki announced he would veto a migration pact adopted by the EU Justice and Home Affairs (JHA) Council in early June, according to the state-run PAP news agency.

"Next week, I'm going to a meeting of the European Council, where I will say a firm 'no' and maintain my veto on illegal immigration," he said.

According to the pact, EU member states will have to accept an initial quota of 30,000 migrants from countries that bear the pressure of irregular migration from the Middle East and Africa, including Greece and Italy, or pay about €22,000 ($23,300) per non-admitted migrant.

Poland and Hungary were against the new rules but were outvoted.