The Polish government on Tuesday extended for another three months the ban on access to the border area with Belarus, which was imposed in September due to the escalation of the immigration crisis, with the arrival of thousands of people.
The new measures announced late last night by Interior Minister Mariusz Kaminski de facto extend from today the state of emergency in the border region, the force of which expired at midnight.
Under Polish law, a state of emergency can only be declared for up to three months at most.
The new measures maintain a ban on access to the border to any non-resident, including members of NGOs that help migrants.
Journalists, who until now were also banned from moving in the zone, will still be able to apply for special permission from the border guards.
The new measures were made possible by the adoption by parliament, controlled by the ruling nationalist right, of an amendment to the law on border guards, which gives the interior ministry the power to block access to the border in the event of incidents there.
Parliament also rejected a Senate amendment to allow journalists to work freely in the border area.
Opposition groups and human rights groups say the measures taken are too much for the Interior Ministry and violate the Polish Constitution.
The West accuses the Belarussian regime of orchestrating the immigration crisis in order to blackmail the European Union into what it calls a hybrid threat. Minsk denies it.
Reacting to the escalation of tensions with Belarus and the gathering of thousands of migrants at the gates, mainly from the Middle East, Poland erected barbed wire fences and deployed thousands of troops along the 400-kilometer stretch of border between the two states.
Polish media estimate that more than ten people have lost their lives on both sides of the border trying to cross the overgrown area and join the EU.
Last week, the non-governmental organization Human Rights Watch (HRW) ruled that Belarus was “indifferent to the human consequences” and that Poland shared responsibility for “the suffering in the border area”. both governments for “serious human rights violations” of migrants and asylum seekers at their borders
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