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Poland plans €353m wall on Belarus border

Armed polish police officers stand at the Polish-Belarusian border near Usnarz Gorny village in north-west Poland
Armed polish police officers stand at the Polish-Belarusian border near Usnarz Gorny village in north-west Poland

Poland plans to build a wall on its border with Belarus in a bid to stem the flow of migrants trying to cross, according to a draft bill to be debated in parliament.

The wall is estimated to cost €353m to construct and will include motion detectors.

"The number of attempts to cross the border is growing," the government said in the justification for the legislation.

The draft law also states that the public may not be allowed within 200 metres of the barrier.

Thousands of migrants - mostly from the Middle East and Africa - have tried to cross the Polish border from Belarus since August.

The European Union has said the influx has been deliberately engineered by the Belarusian regime as a way of retaliating against EU sanctions.

Poland has responded to the unprecedented migrant arrivals by sending thousands of soldiers to the border and implementing a state of emergency there, as well as building a razor-wire fence.

Poland was one of 12 member states that last week asked the EU to pay for border "barriers" to stop migrants from entering.

The plans for the wall were immediately criticised by non-governmental organisations, which have accused the Polish government of a heavy-handed response to the migrant influx and have warned of increasingly dangerous conditions.

The state of emergency, which prevents journalists and charity workers from going near the frontier, has proved particularly controversial and the EU has called for "transparency".