First stretch of Belarus border fence gets surveillance equipment

Construction of the first stretch of an 'electronic barrier' comprised of surveillance and detection equipment on the Polish-Belarusian border has been completed.

The barrier, which re-enforces an existing fence, can now be used by the Polish Border Guard (SG).

The 21-kilometre stretch near the village of Kuznica features more than 300 day and night-vision cameras, including thermo-vision, and an electro-telecommunications station.

PAP has learned that the stretch handed over to the SG on Monday afternoon should start working within days as the first operators are currently being trained. Details of the system will soon be presented at a special meeting for journalists to be organised at the border.

General Wioletta Gorzkowska from the SG told a parliamentary sub-committee that the surveillance equipment will provide Poland with an early-warning system that will eventually cover the whole of the EU's external border.

Gen. Gorzkowska told the committee the choice of contractor for a similar barrier on the border with the Russian enclave of Kaliningrad was in progress.

The full length of the electronic barrier with Belarus will stretch for 202 kilometres and cost around PLN 1.6 billion (EUR 340 million).

Last year, Poland experienced heightened migratory pressure at its border with Belarus with thousands of migrants trying to get into the country. Warsaw blamed the crisis on the Belarusian government, saying it was flying in Middle Eastern and African migrants on the false promise of easy access to the EU.