Poland starts building metal wall on border with Belarus
CTV
Construction workers with heavy machinery have started work on Poland's border with Belarus on a US$394 million wall to stop migrants pushed across by Belarus in what the European Union calls a 'hybrid attack.'
Reporters were allowed Thursday to see the work in the village of Tolcza, near the closed border crossing of Kuznica in eastern Poland.
Border guards and the military patrolled as excavators and cranes prepared the ground for the metal wall that Poland's right-wing government says will serve the interests of all of the EU. Bloc member Poland is opposed to taking in large numbers of migrants.
"The Belarusian side is ready to do anything when it comes to provocations, so we have to be ready for any kind of event," said Maj. Arkadiusz Tomaszewski, deputy commander of the Border Guard in Ku┼║nica, where clashes with migrants and Belarusian security officers took place last year.
The 5.5-meter (18-foot) high metal wall topped with barbed wire will run more than 180 kilometers (115 miles) along the land part of the border, which also includes the Bug River. Cameras and electronic alarm systems are to be added.
