Poland prolongs Belarus border buffer zone over migration concerns

Poland has extended the buffer zone along its border with Belarus in response to ongoing migration pressure, the country’s Interior Ministry said.

The Polish Interior Minister had signed an order extending the buffer zone on the Polish-Belarusian frontier for three more months due to continued migration pressure from Belarus, Caliber.Az reports, citing the country's Ministry of Interior.

The zone is intended to protect the state border and counter smugglers who facilitate illegal crossings on the Polish side.

The restrictions will remain in force from December 5, 2025, to March 5, 2026.

According to the ministry’s statement, since early September, Poland’s Border Guard has recorded more than 4,600 attempts to illegally cross the border from Belarus.

“This is 5% fewer than in the same period in 2024. On November 14 and from November 17 to 19, not a single illegal crossing attempt was recorded,” the statement read.

“We welcome the decrease in migration pressure, but we do not yet consider this trend long-term, which is why we will continue to apply all measures that have allowed us to stop illegal migration on this route. In 2023, 12,000 people crossed this border and headed for the western frontier; in 2024, the figure was 5,000, and this year it will be around one thousand,” Deputy Interior Minister Czesław Mroczek said.

Since 2021, the frontier between Poland–Belarus has become a flashpoint for irregular migration. Many migrants from the Middle East, Africa and elsewhere — Belarus’ neighbours accuse Minsk of “organising” or facilitating their travel to Belarus and then pushing them toward the EU’s external border.

As a reaction, Poland began deploying troops, laying barbed wire, and in late 2021 declared a state of emergency in border-adjacent regions.

In 2022, Poland completed construction of a 5.5-metre-high steel fence of about 186–187 km along the border to deter illegal crossings, supplemented by an electronic surveillance system with cameras, motion sensors and thermal detection.

In March 2025, Poland’s president signed a law granting the government authority to suspend the right to asylum for migrants arriving via the border with Belarus — a move described by authorities as a response to what they call “migration instrumentalisation.”

By Jeyhun Aghazada