Poland wants to have fence on border with Russia's Kaliningrad within month
Poland plans to complete building a fence on the country's border with the Russian exclave of Kaliningrad in a month, a deputy defence minister has said.
On Wednesday, Poland's defence minister, Mariusz Błaszczak, announced the decision to commence the immediate construction of the 2.5-metre high and 3-metre deep barrier amid concerns that the exclave might begin to channel migrants across the border.
He said the move to strengthen national security "by sealing the border" had been prompted by the start of flights to Kaliningrad from the Middle East and Africa.
On Thursday, Błaszczak's deputy, Wojciech Skurkiewicz, told Polish Radio: "We have given ourselves... one month to carry out this task" and added that the engineering work "is very intensive."
He said that the need for speed was due to the "absolutely disturbing" intelligence the government was receiving.
"We want to seal this border, reinforced with coils of razor wire... and within a month the maximum possible length of the border will be practically sealed," Skurkiewicz added.
Last year, Poland experienced heightened migratory pressure at its border with Belarus. 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.
Błaszczak said there would be fencing on the Polish side of the barrier to protect animals and that electronic surveillance equipment would also be installed.
