Sick-out over wage demands by Polish customs officers

Belarusian foreign ministry expresses concern over traffic delays at Polish border




The Belarusian foreign ministry has expressed “concern” over huge traffic delays caused by a sick-out over wage demands by Polish customs officers, Belapan reports.

Personnel at Polish customs checkpoints has been reduced to just a few officers in the last few days, resulting in backups of thousands of trucks and cars.

In a statement issued on Saturday, Andrey Papow, spokesman for the ministry, said that the strike had “paralyzed the system of freight and individuals’ movement” at Poland’s Belarusian border.

“Reports of the physical and moral suffering of people stranded in kilometers-long lines at the Polish side of the border, including the lack of access to medical assistance, cause a particular alarm,” Mr. Papow said.

The official expressed hope that the European Union would meet its international obligations “in the sphere of the unimpeded movement of individuals and shipments through the external EU borders and prevent further damage to the interests of other countries’ people and economies.”

“We strongly urge the European Union to take all necessary measures to solve the problems at the Polish section of its border as soon as possible, including by sending representatives of other European customs services there,” the statement said.

Minsk invited the European Union to “create an efficient system of cooperation with Belarus’ customs service” to prevent the recurrence of traffic jams at the shared border.

The Belarusian and Russian customs services also have expressed deep concern about the situation in a joint statement.

According to the Belarusian State Border Committee, trucks lines were as long as 20 kilometers at the Polish side of the shared border on Saturday. There were about 300 trucks at the Kazlovichy customs checkpoint in the Brest region, twice as many as before the strike.