“The zone has been operational for three weeks, and we are already seeing positive effects,” Major Katarzyna Zdanowicz stated at a press briefing on Friday. “There has been a noticeable decrease in unauthorized border crossing attempts.”
She presented data indicating that during the three-week period since the buffer zone's introduction, there were 1,700 attempts to cross the border, compared to 3,900 attempts during the same period before its implementation.
“It's evident that this marks a reduction of more than 50%,” she remarked.
Furthermore, Major Zdanowicz noted that initially there were approximately 150 daily attempts to cross the border when the zone first began, but recently this number has decreased to about 20 attempts per day.
The buffer zone was initially introduced by the previous Law and Justice (PiS) government in 2021, responding to Belarus's efforts to exert migration pressure on the EU’s eastern borders following sanctions imposed by Brussels on Minsk.
Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenka invited thousands of migrants, mainly from the Middle East and Africa, promising them easy entry into the EU via the Polish and Lithuanian borders.
Following the tragic death of a Polish soldier who was fatally stabbed by migrants at the border in June, Poland reinstated the buffer zone to enhance security.
