The project cost more than PLN 125 million (about USD 31 million).
The electronic barrier, comprising cameras and sensors, helps border guards monitor the frontier, which has become a hotspot for illegal crossings as Belarus and Russia continue to weaponize migration in an attempt to destabilize the European Union.
The surveillance system is controlled from the headquarters of the Podlaskie Border Guard unit in the regional capital Białystok.
As part of the modernisation, a second line of cameras was installed to monitor the outer side of the 5.5-metre-high steel border fence built in 2022.
Additional lighting now illuminates the technical road that runs alongside the barrier, and new camera posts have been added at water crossings.
The system also now includes artificial intelligence to help classify alerts from fibre-optic detection cables.
For the first time, a similar electronic barrier has also been installed along two border rivers in Podlaskie, the Świsłocz and Istoczanka, where illegal crossings have also been reported.
The cost of securing these 47 kilometres of river border was over PLN 85 million and included the installation of more than 500 poles and 1,300 cameras capable of both day and thermal imaging.
With this, the entire section of the Belarus border overseen by the Podlaskie branch of the Border Guard is now under electronic surveillance.
The electronic system complements the existing physical barrier, which was reinforced last year with additional steel spans and layers of concertina razor wire.
According to the Border Guard, more than 30,000 attempted illegal crossings were recorded in Podlaskie in 2024. The number fell in the second half of last year after new monitoring systems were installed and a restricted-access buffer zone was introduced.
However, officials say the number of attempted crossings is now rising again following a calmer winter period.
Since January, the Podlaskie Border Guard has registered nearly 2,500 attempted crossings from Belarus, including over 1,900 in March alone.
Last Thursday, 180 attempts were reported, including several along river sections of the border.
The buffer zone, introduced by government regulation in June 2023, was extended for a third time on March 10 for another 90 days. It now covers 78.3 kilometres of border in Hajnówka County and parts of Białystok County.
This includes areas patrolled by border posts in Michałowo, Narewka, Białowieża, Dubicze Cerkiewne and Czeremcha.
Access is restricted in a 200-metre strip along nearly 60 kilometres of the border.
In nature reserve areas, the buffer zone extends up to two kilometres wide, and in one section it reaches nearly four kilometres.
The interior ministry says the buffer zone has reduced illegal crossing attempts by about 46 percent compared to the same period before it was introduced.
Officials argue the measure improves the safety of personnel and disrupts smuggling groups operating along the border.
Separately, the Safe Podlasie operation continues in the region, with the military and police supporting Border Guard efforts.
Russia, Belarus using migrants to destabilise EU: Polish FM
Polish Foreign Minister Radosław Sikorski said last week that Russia and Belarus were deliberately orchestrating a migrant crisis on the European Union’s eastern border in an attempt to destabilise the bloc from within.
Speaking during a visit to Romania on March 27, Sikorski said that Moscow and Minsk were recruiting migrants from the Middle East, transporting them to Belarus, and pushing them toward EU member states.
The aim, he said, is to stoke fear and strengthen far-right parties across Europe—undermining the EU through political disruption.
“They want to blow up the European Union from the inside using fear,” Sikorski told reporters. “We will not tolerate this.”
The minister noted a sharp rise in attempted illegal crossings at the Polish-Belarusian border, reaching several hundred per day.
However, he added that Polish Border Guard data shows 98 percent of these attempts fail.
Poland’s eastern border has become a flashpoint since 2021, when Belarus began encouraging migrants from the Middle East and Africa to attempt entry into the EU in what officials in Warsaw and Brussels have described as a form of hybrid warfare.
(rt/gs)
Source: IAR, PAP