Poland tightens border

December 9, 2015 in News by RBN

Castanet | Canadian Press

A Polish official says that the country will continue to upgrade surveillance methods to prevent an influx of migrants.

Border guards spokeswoman Agnieszka Golias said Monday that a system of watchtowers is being developed, and that hundreds of personnel could be quickly added to around 8,000 guards patrolling Poland’s borders.

Golias also said that state-of-the art surveillance planes, drones, night vision equipment and SUVs were bought in recent years to help patrol the borders.

Polish border authorities believe that a new migrant wave may begin in the spring.

Golias told The Associated Press that “the situation in Europe is showing us how to streamline our efforts to be more effective.”

Meanwhile, Austria has started building a fence that will stretch along a small part of the border with Slovenia.

Officials say the less than four-kilometre barrier on both sides of the Spielfeld crossing point south of the city of Graz is not meant to prevent migrants from entering Austria, but instead to regulate their crossing.

Work on the chain-link fence began Monday, with completion planned by Christmas.

In Germany, the number of migrants arriving in the country has declined significantly over the past week or two.

Interior Minister Thomas de Maiziere said Monday refugees and other migrants have been arriving at a pace of 2,000 to 3,000 a day in recent days, down from the 8,000 to 10,000 who often arrived daily over recent months.

He said the cause isn’t entirely clear but pointed to bad weather in the Mediterranean that has deterred people from crossing from Turkey to Greece, and efforts by Turkey to stop people leaving by sea.

He said that “this isn’t yet a turnaround, but it is a good development.” De Maiziere’s comments came after he announced that 965,000 people were registered in Germany as asylum-seekers from January to November.