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A Peek at the Poland-Belarus Border
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Per CIA, Belarus has a population of 9.5 million people and GDP per capita is $27,700. Poland, an EU and NATO member has a population of over 39 million people and GDP per capita is $44,400.
For almost four years, Poland has been on a permanent state of high alert because of Belarus, which stands accused of luring asylum seekers from far-away destitute nations and pushing them en masse towards the border with the purpose of sowing chaos and polarizing Polish society. During its six-month presidency of the EU Council, Poland presented a program under the slogan “Security, Europe!” that broke down the concept of security into seven different dimensions, one of them being migration.
And thanks to Belarusian Supremo Aleksandr Lukashenko, here’s what the Polish-Belarusian border looks like.
(Copyright Euronews)
The Polish-Belarusian border is monitored with thermo-vision cameras and sensor cables. (Copyright Euronews)
This road connecting the two countries is firmly blocked. (Copyright Euronews)
Poland argues its actions, such as turning away migrants, are necessary to defend the EU’s external borders. (Copyright Euronews)
Warsaw has urged the EU to think of migration as a security issue. (Copyright Euronews)
A Polish-German border crossing.
And the man responsible for this, Aleksandr Lukashenko, is set to win a seventh term in an election the opposition calls another "farce." Amnesty International described the Belarus elections as being held in a "climate of total fear and repression."
Just one of the thousands of Lukashenko's political victims:
Imprisoned Belarusian human rights activist and 2022 Nobel Peace Prize winner Ales Bialiatski sits in a defendant’s cage during a court session in Minsk on 5 Jan 2023. (Photo: Vitaly Pivovarchyk / BelTA Pool Photo via AP)
Here is a Lukashenko protestor from 2020. (Photo: Tut.by via AP)
Recent protests against Lukashenko resulted in a brutal crackdown with more than 65,000 arrests and thousands beaten, bringing condemnation and sanctions from the West. His iron-fisted rule since 1994 — Lukashenko took office two years after the demise of the Soviet Union — earned him the nickname of “Europe’s Last Dictator,” relying on subsidies and political support from close ally Russia. The Belarussian dictator never bothered to change the name of the KGB like Russia and Ukraine did after the fall of the USSR.
(Image: Nataliia Shulga / Al Jazeera)
The 71-year-old Lukashenko, who only knows about life from the former Soviet Union, is afraid of his own people as well as losing power. And people in his proximity are afraid. A former minister said that officials sit with their heads down during meetings with him, avoiding eye contact with him out fear.
Sources:
https://www.euronews.com/my-europe/2025/01/23/at-the-poland-belarus-border-security-and-migration-merge-into-one
https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2025/01/belarus-authorities-hold-presidential-election-in-climate-of-total-fear-and-repression/
https://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/belarus-strongman-set-win-7th-term-election-opposition-118112452