Poland Extends Border Fence Against Migrants From Belarus

  • Prime minister says ‘we can’t allow these people entry’
  • Opposition leader hits back that those arriving ‘need help’

A barbed-wire barrier along the frontier with Belarus, near Krynki, Poland, on Aug. 18.

Photographer: Maciej Luczniewski/NurPhoto via Getty Images

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Poland’s government vowed to protect its territory from Afghan migrants arriving across the border with Belarus by extending a barbed-wire barrier along the frontier and fortifying it with more troops.

With European Union nations fretting that the Taliban’s unexpected surge to power in Afghanistan will trigger a new migrant crisis, the bloc’s members bordering Belarus are locked in a standoff with that country’s authoritarian leader, Alexander Lukashenko, who’s threatened to send refugees their way in retaliation to sanctions against his government.