A.n the border between Belarus and Poland the situation escalated to the thousands of migrants on Tuesday. Belarusian state media showed in various video sequences how water cannons were used by the Polish side against the migrants at the Kuznica-Brusgi crossing.
You could see soaked people, including journalists, who were hit by the water jet. The Polish Ministry of Defense also released a video showing the use of a water cannon. The Polish police also announced that an officer was seriously injured in the clashes. Accordingly, the policeman suffered a fractured skull.
The Ministry in Warsaw spoke of an “attack by migrants” at the Kuznica border crossing. The refugees are very aggressive and would throw stones at soldiers and security forces, wrote the ministry on Tuesday in the short message service Twitter. They were also equipped with pop grenades from the Belarusian side.
The Belarusian recordings also showed migrants throwing stones at the Polish security forces. According to unconfirmed reports, the Polish side also used tear gas. Poland does not allow media for reporting from the border region.
According to the Belarusian ruler Alexandr Lukashenko, there are more than 2000 people in a “migrant camp” who have been there for days. Crying children were also seen on the videos published.
Many migrants are from Iraq. According to the agency Interfax, the country’s embassy in Moscow informed that around 200 people from Belarus now want to return to their homeland. Among them are families, women and children, it said. An “evacuation flight” from Minsk will be organized for this Thursday.
Lukashenko announced after his phone call with Chancellor Angela Merkel that he was expecting another conversation with her. Lukashenko said that talks are also pending with Russian President Vladimir Putin, who had offered to mediate in the conflict.
The phone call between Chancellor Angela Merkel (CDU) and Lukashenko has met with fierce criticism from the ranks of the Greens in Germany. Foreign politician Omid Nouripour spoke on Deutschlandfunk of a “devastating signal”. He pointed out that the EU does not recognize the controversial re-election of Lukashenko in 2020. With her phone call, however, Merkel de facto achieved exactly this recognition.
Nouripour said the EU should not allow itself to be blackmailed by Lukashenko, but also called for humanitarian aid for the refugees stuck in the border area. It is now especially important “that these people do not freeze to death at the border,” said the Green politician. These people must be helped and they must be able to apply for asylum in the EU.
Nouripour pointed out that the overall number of refugees was rather small and that, also due to the sanctions, it was not to be expected that more and more migrants would come. He therefore turned against a “panic” in the EU before their possible entry.
There must also be solidarity with the countries particularly affected by the conflict, Poland and Lithuania, said the Green politician. At the same time, however, the EU must also urge compliance with the law there. Specifically, Nouripour turned against so-called pushbacks of refugees by Polish security forces. These are repeatedly forced back illegally to Belarus, even if they have already reached Polish territory and thus have the right to apply for asylum there.
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