Lawmakers in Poland have approved the accelerated construction of a €347 million barrier on its border with Belarus to help attempt to stop the increasing flow of migrants.
The plan was proposed by the right-wing government and now just needs approval from President Andrzej Duda.
Poland and other EU nations accuse the Belarusian regime of President Alexander Lukashenko of encouraging and aiding migrants from the Middle East and Africa to enter the EU through borders with Belarus.
Warsaw says the government in Minsk is seeking to destabilise the whole bloc in retaliation for Western sanctions.
Poland has built a razor-wire fence on the border and sent thousands of border guards, troops and police, but the measures have failed to stop the inflow.
The border guards have also been pushing migrants back across the border, including families with children, and a new Polish law makes that legal.
Some migrants, who are mainly from Iraq and Syria, have died from exhaustion near Poland’s border with Belarus, which runs over 400 kilometres through forest, bogs, and along the Bug River.