Border control proves a vexed issue ahead of Polish accession

Date: 11/09/03

By Wieslaw Horabik

A GROUP of nine Apache tribesmen came to aid Poland in its attempts to seal its eastern borders in time for the country's accession to the European Union.

The native Americans taught the Polish guards how to read human tracks, identify the routes of smugglers and illegal emigrants by material evidence they leave behind, and how to counter-oppose tricks popular among practitioners of the "green border" crossings. Normally, the tribesmen earn their living fighting narcotics smugglers on the US-Mexican border.

The challenges are great since the Polish services will have to control one of the longest land border sections of the European Union, as well as, 300 kilometres of the sea border.

Safety on its eastern fringes is important to the EU. During the latest inspection carried out in May, Union experts voiced concerns about the insufficient number of border guards, their poor command of foreign languages and their vulnerability to corruption. The inspectors also revealed delays in integrating the information system of the border guard with external databases, and generally poor coordination of the activities of the guard services with other law enforcement units.

In 2003, the Polish authorities planned to employ 2,650 professional and well-trained guards. So far, they have managed to hire only half that number. Another problem is the replacement of a large group (3,000) of the so-called candidate personnel, that is, people who avoid recruitment to the army by doing substitute service on the borders. Till 2006, the Poles will have to find resources for supplementing the border guard ranks with 5,300 people.

The European Union announced plans to co-finance the sealing of the Eastern border with €280 million during the coming years. Money from Brussels flowed to the Polish border guard all through the 1990s. Since that time, 16 new look-out stations have been established and two more will be created this year.

A few years ago, the peak of modernization of the border guard in Poland was a fax machine in the commander's office. Today, thanks to internet links, it is no longer a problem to get in touch with a patrol engaged in action in the mountainous terrain, and the coded order to detain a wanted criminal - with his photo and full dossier - can reach all border crossings within minutes.

Infra-red telescopes, radars and digital coded communication are now standard. The last decade brought to the eastern part of the continent another device - thermovision. The costly equipment allows observation to be carried out at night, in snowstorms and dense fog. The special detectors can reveal an intruder from a large distance without compromising the observer. The border guard has nine vehicles with infra-red mapping and they plan to purchase ten more in the near future.

"All necessary means will be adopted on time," says Colonel Cezary Zalewski of the communication and information department of the border guard headquarters "if Europe manages to expand the SIS II system, so it could effectively cover the new member states". SIS means the European system of databases. So far, the Poles can use it through German Bundesgrenzschuts officers working in the Polish-German contact bureaus on the western border.

Poland is an attractive place for drug traffickers and illegal immigrants as "a gateway to the West". Many foreigners refused a Polish visa will be tempted to use illegal routes. Poland itself - once it becomes a member of the European Union - can be perceived as a coveted place of a potential settlement. Colonel Zalewski says that his country does not want to separate itself from its neighbours by a 'Chinese wall'.

He predicts, however, that in the places specially threatened with trans-border crime, sophisticated systems of detectors will be secretly installed. The systems will signal movements of people in the controlled area. The European Union will closely monitor those undertakings. A new inspection team is expected to visit Poland this autumn.

Polish guards are benefiting from a visit by Apache tribesman as they prepare to man one of the longest land border sections in the European Union as well as the sea border.