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WARSAW, Poland (AP) — Polish foot soldiers began laying barbed ropes along Poland’s border with Russia’s enclave of Kaliningrad Wednesday after the government ordered the construction of a barrier to save what it fears is another migrant crisis.
Defense Minister Mariusz Blaszczak said a recent resolution through Russia’s aviation authority to release flights from the Middle East and North Africa to Kaliningrad brought them to Poland’s 210-kilometer (130-mile) border with Kaliningrad.
“Due to worrying reports related to the launch of flights from the Middle East and North Africa to Kaliningrad, I have taken the decision to take measures that will protect the Polish border with Kaliningrad Oblast by closing this border,” Blaszczak said.
Read more: EU divided over reaction to Russians fleeing military service
Blaszczak said the barrier along the border would consist of 3 rows of barbed cord 2. 5 meters (eight feet) high and 3 meters (10 feet) wide and would feature an electronic surveillance formula and cameras. The Polish side will also have a fence to keep the animals away from the barbed ropes.
Previously, the sparsely populated border domain patrolled but had no physical barrier.
To the south, Poland’s border with Belarus was the scene of a primary migration crisis last year, with large numbers of other people from the Middle East entering as illegal friends. Polish and European leaders have accused the Belarusian government, Russian President Vladimir Putin’s best friend. — to orchestrate migration to create chaos and division within the 27-nation bloc.
Poland erected similar rolls of barbed cord before the construction of a permanent upper metal wall on the border with Belarus, which was completed in June.
Blaszczak, the defense minister, said the government was convinced to install fences near Kaliningrad because of Poland’s involvement on the border with Belarus, where a similar action “prevented a hybrid attack through Belarus or particularly slowed down that attack. “
The director general of Kaliningrad’s Khrabrovo Airport, Alexander Korytnyi, told Russia’s Interfax news firm on Oct. 3 that the facility would seek to “attract airlines from the Persian Gulf and Asian countries,” the United Arab Emirates and Qatar.
Over the past month, Poland’s border guard company has not detected anyone seeking to enter the country illegally from Kaliningrad, some mushroom pickers wandered the domain by mistake, company spokeswoman Miroslawa Aleksandrowicz told the official PAP news agency.
READ MORE: Ukraine alleges Russians tortured detainees in town near border
Some in Poland criticize the barrier.
Zuzanna Dabrowska, a commentator for the conservative Rzeczpospolita, wrote Wednesday that the fence would be useless and harmful because the barbed cord is harmful to animals and others seeking to cross it.
She argued that other people from the Middle East and Africa were still looking to enter Poland illegally from Belarus despite the border wall.
“The barrier did not scare them, as they do not have a retreat, under pressure from Belarusian border guards,” Dabrowska wrote.
The Polish government has harshly criticized critics of Belarus’ border wall, portraying them as helping those who harm Poland.
The Kaliningrad enclave, with a population of around 1 million, is the northern component of what was once the German territory of East Prussia and became part of the Soviet Union after World War II.
It is home to the Baltic Fleet of the Russian Navy and also a commercial center. The dunes and resorts, what remains of the ancient Prussian architecture in the city of Kaliningrad and the museums of the sea and amber are among the tourist attractions.
Soldiers have begun laying barbed ropes in Wisztyniec, where the borders of Poland, Russia and Lithuania meet. Lithuania, like Poland, is a member of NATO and the European Union.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov on Wednesday declined to comment on the Kaliningrad border fence, describing it as “a Polish affair. “
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