Poland seeks to bolster border with new tech

Poland plans to strengthen its border with a system of motion sensors and cameras, modelling it on the Greek border with Turkey, its interior minister said in comments published on Monday, as it faces a large migrant influx from Belarus.

In August, Poland began building a barbed wire fence along its border with Belarus to curb illegal border crossings despite criticism that some migrants were being treated inhumanely.

The new additions would strengthen border control as part of a permanent barrier.

“We are building a perimeter - a system of motion sensors with thermal cameras - that immediately and precisely show where people are gathering,” Poland’s Interior Minister Mariusz Kaminski said in an interview with Polish right-wing magazine Sieci.

He added that a political decision had been made to ensure appropriate funding for the initiative and that the new border set up will be similar to that on the Greek-Turkish border, with inspiration also drawn from Hungary and Serbia.

Greece is trialing a high-tech, automated surveillance system on its land border with Turkey in the northeastern region of Evros that was completed in August and authorities expect will be in force at the end of the year. It includes cameras, drones, motion sensors and radar providing information to two border surveillance towers.