Polish Military Plans Major Changes on Border with Belarus
According to Polish radio station RM FM, Poland’s Ministry of Defense is planning a major reorganization of security on the border with Belarus. The reasons cited for this decision are a decrease in attempts by migrants to illegally cross the Polish border and a halt in attacks by illegal border crossers on Polish Border Guard officers.
The Ministry of Defense also noted the effectiveness of new electronic systems installed on the wall along the border line, which easily detect attempts at illegal entry into Poland.
Polish military officials are still conducting an analysis, the results of which could lead to a decision to hand back control of certain sections of the border zone with Belarus to the Border Guard.
Furthermore, Poland intends to increase the role of mobile patrols, which would allow soldiers currently tasked with guarding the border to return to their units and resume other activities.
Currently, there are 5,000 soldiers stationed on the Polish-Belarusian border. They were deployed as part of Operation «Safe Podlasie» to assist border guards following the influx of illegal migrants from third countries attempting to enter the European Union from Belarus.
Since mid-November, when Poland reopened two long-closed border crossing points with Belarus, the number of migrants attempting to enter the country illegally has dropped significantly, Polish media reported. They did not specify the reason for this decrease. However, Poland had previously completely sealed its border with Belarus, triggering a crisis that drew involvement from, among others, China. At that time, Warsaw insisted it would reopen the border once it deemed the security situation on the Belarusian-Polish frontier normalized.
In total, 358 foreigners attempted to enter Poland illegally in November, the Border Guard reported. For comparison, during the same period a year earlier, nearly 1,000 people tried to cross the border.