Polish Minister of Internal Affairs Tomasz Siemoniak signed a decree extending the buffer zone on the border with Belarus for another 90 days. The document enters into force on September 11.
This was reported by the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Poland.
"The zone brought specific good results. It is aimed primarily at smugglers who smuggle people across the border," said the Polish minister.
The situation on the border between Belarus and Poland
In 2021, after the introduction of sanctions against Belarus for the falsification of presidential elections, the suppression of the opposition and protests, a stream of migrants from the countries of the Middle East rushed to the border of the European Union (Poland, Lithuania, Latvia).
In the fall of 2021, migrants stormed the borders and threw stones at the border guards. The Belarusian authorities brought them truckloads of crushed stone and distributed gas canisters, blinded the Polish border guards with laser pointers and strobe lights, and tried to destroy the border fence.
This year, the situation on the Polish-Belarusian border worsened again. Illegal migrants regularly try to enter Poland illegally. At the beginning of June 2024, a Polish border guard died after being stabbed on the border with Belarus — a migrant threw a stick with a blade at the end. It was after this incident that Poland introduced a buffer zone on June 13, 2024 — it covers a section of the Polish-Belarusian border more than 60 kilometers long.