Poland plans fence on Belarus border, offers aid to migrants

By VANESSA GERA
Associated Press

WARSAW, Poland (AP) — Poland’s Defense Ministry says it plans to build a fence 2.5 meters (8 feet) high along its border with Belarus and deploy more soldiers there to stop migrants seeking to enter the country.  Poland and the three Baltic states  — Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia — accuse Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko of sending migrants from Afghanistan and Iraq across their borders, which are also the European Union’s external border. They say that’s part of Belarus’s “hybrid war” against the EU. Meanwhile, political tensions have been growing in Poland over some 30 migrants stuck on the border with Belarus. On Monday the Polish Foreign Ministry said it was ready to send food, medicine and other humanitarian help to the group, which it says is in Belarusian territory.