Poland builds a border wall, even as it welcomes Ukrainian refugees

Rather than being welcomed into Polish homes, the vast majority of people crossing from Belarus are being detained or pushed back by Polish authorities.

That stance, in effect just to the north of Poland’s border with Ukraine, means two different groups seeking the same thing — refuge — are arriving to find what amounts to two different versions of Europe.
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Along one segment of Poland’s border, where 2.5 million Ukrainians have fled, border agents help carry duffel bags, push wheelchairs, hold tired children and escort to safety refugees who’ve been granted automatic European Union residency for up to three years.

On another segment of that border, Poland is trying to stop what it describes as “illegal” immigrants by using drones, infrared cameras and helicopters. It has dispatched 13,000 soldiers and border guards to patrol the forested boundary, while sealing off the area — under an emergency decree — to journalists and human rights groups. It is hurrying to finish a $380 million 116-mile steel wall that the government says will be “impenetrable.”

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