Poland starts work on barrier along border with Russian exclave

By Jo Harper

WARSAW (AA) – Poland announced on Wednesday that it will immediately start work on a temporary barbed wire fence along the border between Poland and the Russian exclave of Kaliningrad.

"I have decided to build a temporary wall on the border with the Kaliningrad region. Work will begin today," said Defense Minister Mariusz Blaszczak.

The announcement follows news of the launch of flights from the Middle East and North Africa to Kaliningrad, a small region of about 15,000 square kilometers (5,800 square miles) sandwiched between Poland and Lithuania with a coast along the Baltic, with a population of about 1 million, which the USSR got from Germany at the end of World War II.

The wall will consist of three rows of barbed wire 2.5 meters (8.2 feet) high and a width of 3 meters (9.8 ft).

Krzysztof Sobolewski, general secretary of Poland’s ruling Law and Justice party, last week told public broadcaster Polish Radio that Russia and its ally Belarus are using migrants as part of a "hybrid warfare" campaign to destabilize Europe and that larger groups of migrants are appearing at the Belarus border – a situation reminiscent of the winter 2021-22 border crisis on the countries’ borders.

Kaliningrad-Khrabrovo Airport has signed an open skies agreement with Türkiye, Syria, and Belarus, three countries enjoying good ties with Russia. The Kaliningrad.ru website reports that airport authorities in Kaliningrad plan to launch connections with Türkiye, the United Arab Emirates, Egypt, and Ethiopia.

"The Russians were already making approaches to create new migration corridors, even before the recent crisis on the Polish-Belarusian border,” said Maciej Duszczyk from the Centre of Migration Research at the University of Warsaw.

“For example, they changed the status of airports on the borders with Estonia and Finland, thus creating incentives for carriers and travel agencies from virtually any direction to apply. However, so far nothing has come of it. It's more of a bogeyman. The same thing is happening now in Kaliningrad, but for now it does not seem that it will go beyond the testing phase.”

- Barrier with Belarus ‘effective’

Blaszczak also appealed to the political opposition to support the barrier initiative. “I hope this time the opposition will not organize trips with pizza to the border,” he said.

"What happened last year was proof that the opposition and celebrities, using the support of their media, tried to force border guards and soldiers to open the border so that migrants could cross the border illegally, but society stood behind the Polish military. I am convinced that this time will be the same,” he added.

Poland has built a 5.5-meter (18-ft) steel barrier, with motion sensors and cameras, along 187 km (116 mi) of the Belarus border.

According to Border Guard data, the wall on the border with Belarus – although still incomplete – is already largely an effective barrier.

"Last year, we had almost 800 attempts a day to illegally enter Poland, now it is a maximum of 120," said Anna Michalska, spokeswoman for the guard. In October 2021, there were 17,454 attempts to cross the border illegally. In October 2022 (to Oct. 23) there were 10 times fewer of these attempts.

This year, the Belarusian side, supported by Russia, has significantly expanded the circle of countries from which illegal immigrants are drawn.

"Within one month, we detain foreigners, citizens of 40 different countries. A year ago, they were citizens of several countries, mainly from the Middle East,” Michalska said.

The effect of this may be the opening of new migration routes, including through Lithuania. This year, more than 600 illegal immigrants who entered Lithuania from Belarus were detained on the Polish border. In 2021, it was 317 people.