A financial package announced by the European Commission on Wednesday aims to "counter hybrid threats from the weaponization of migration" along the bloc's frontier with Belarus and Russia.

Thousands of people, often from sub-Saharan Africa and the Middle East, have attempted to cross into Poland from Belarus since 2021.

Warsaw and the EU say the government in Minsk has provoked a crisis by luring migrants to the border on false promises of easy access to Europe’s passport-free Schengen zone.

But the Polish authorities' response has also been criticized, with a leading human rights organization accusing border guards of “unlawfully and sometimes violently” forcing migrants back into Belarus without assessing their need for protection.

The EU has made a total of €170 million available to strengthen border protection on its eastern flank, with Finland, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and Norway also granted funding.

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said the money will finance upgrades in electronic surveillance and telecommunication, as well as help countries deploy mobile detection equipment and counter drone intrusion.

"We have taken another decisive step to support our frontline Member States in countering hybrid threats from Russia's and Belarus' unacceptable weaponization of migration," said von der Leyen.

"Autocrats must never be allowed to use our European values against us.''

Earlier this week, the Polish government announced that an exclusion zone along the border with Belarus would be in place for a further 90 days.

Officials say this "buffer zone" has led to a sharp fall in attempted crossings.

Tough asylum stance backed

Meanwhile, the European Commission has formally backed Prime Minister Donald Tusk’s controversial decision to permit the temporary suspension of the right to claim asylum. That move was part of a new migration strategy unveiled by Warsaw in October.

The commission’s executive vice-president, Henna Virkkunen, said on Wednesday that member states are allowed to suspend migrants’ fundamental rights in exceptional circumstances such as those on Poland’s eastern border.

Responding to criticism from human rights NGOs that branded the policy “inhumane” and “short-sighted,” Tusk said when the decision was announced that "right to asylum is being used as an instrument in this war and has nothing to do with human rights.”

Poland is also building fortifications on its frontiers as part of a so-called "Eastern Shield" designed to ward off a potential attack by Russia.

At the end of November, Tusk said that the first section, near the border with the Russian enclave of Kaliningrad, had been completed.