WARSAW: Poland on Tuesday announced plans to install thousands of motion sensors and cameras along its border with Russia’s Kaliningrad enclave to stop what it says are illegal migrant crossings planned by Moscow.
Polish Interior Minister Mariusz Kaminski said the system would join a barbed wire fence being installed on the two-hundred-kilometer frontier.
Kaminski said Poland would have total surveillance of activities at the border.
3000 cameras, detections
The project costs $88 million, including 3,000 motion detectors and cameras.
A 5-meter-high metal barrier with a similar surveillance system is already installed along the border with Russian ally Belarus, which has been accused of permitting migrants to enter the European Union (EU) — a charge Minsk denies.
Poland prevents people from getting over 200 meters from the border.
Despite Poland’s practice of sending migrants back to Belarus, about one hundred banned attempts to cross the border are reported daily, according to border guards and NGOs.
Many of those trying to cross are from Africa and the Middle East.
The so-called pushbacks, and the Polish government’s overall strict anti-migration stance, has drawn condemnation from aid organization and activists.
