The Polish Council of Ministers has approved a draft law to build a high, solid barrier with a monitoring system and motion sensors at the border with Belarus, aiming to curb migrants illegally crossing into Polish territory, according to Politico.
“The Council of Ministers has just adopted a bill on the construction of state border security, submitted by the Ministry of the Interior and Administration,” Mariusz Kamiński, the Minister of Interior and Administration, wrote on Twitter on Tuesday.
„The draft has already been submitted to the Sejm, the Polish parliamentary body and will come into effect a day after it has been published in the Journal of Law due to the immediate threat at the border,” added Kamiński.
Kamiński stated that the actions taken by the Alexander Lukashenko regime demanded a firm response from the Polish government and that these kinds of barriers have successfully worked in other countries.
The construction process can take many months, with different parts of the border requiring different construction activities.
Government spokesperson Piotr Mueller said on Wednesday that “at the moment, the funds secured for this construction are around PLN 500 million” — roughly €110 million. The total costs of the wall, however, could exceed PLN1.6 billion, according to a government estimate, which is about €350 million.
Belarussian authoritarian leader Lukashenko started a “hybrid war” against bordering EU countries in retaliation for EU sanctions over his disputed presidential election. Over 16,000 illegal border-crossing attempts have been stopped by Polish officials.