Poland plans fence on Belarus border, offers aid to migrants

Poland’s Defense Ministry says it plans to build a fence 2.5 meters (8 feet) high along its border with Belarus and deploy more soldiers there to stop migrants seeking to enter the country

WARSAW, Poland -- Poland plans to build a fence along its border with Belarus and deploy more soldiers there to stop migrants seeking to enter the European Union nation. The government on Monday also offered to send humanitarian aid to a group stuck at the border for more than two weeks. Poland and the three Baltic states — Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia — accuse Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko of sending migrants — most apparently from Afghanistan and Iraq — across their borders, which are also the EU's external border, in what they call a “hybrid war.” All four EU nations believe the surge in migrants is Minsk's revenge for supporting EU sanctions against the autocratic regime in Belarus.