Authorities fear that displaced people relocated to a center along the Polish border will barricade themselves to prevent their repatriation
Given the refusal of the German Government to take charge of the 2,000 migrants who are currently in a reception center near the border with Poland, next to the city of Grodno, and the effectiveness of the Polish forces in preventing them from crossing the border , the Belarusian authorities are beginning to see the situation as a problem. They fear that the illegals will barricade themselves indefinitely in the logistics warehouse that was set up last week to save them from the cold and the lack of food.
Alexéi Begún, head of the Migration Department of the Ministry of the Interior of Belarus, acknowledged this Tuesday in statements to the press that “the people who are currently on the border between Belarus and Poland – the 2,000 confined in the reception center – have not applied to the competent authorities for refugee status or subsidiary protection “. In his words, “what these migrants want insistently is to move to the countries of the European Union (…) many of them have relatives in Germany.”
“At the present time, representatives of UNHCR – the UN Refugee Agency – are in Belarus holding meetings with government agencies to develop joint measures to resolve this migration crisis,” said Begún. In his opinion, it is a question of “returning to their places of origin those who request it or, for those who do not wish to return, finding a third country that wants to host them.”
THE KEYS:
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On the way.
None of the foreigners registered by Minsk have applied for refugee status or protection -
Sanctions
The US prepares a new round of punishments for the regime for “promoting irregular migration”
The Belarusian official stressed that the migrants do not want to stay in Belarus and, in particular, the 2,000 from the border that President Alexander Lukashenko asked German Chancellor Angela Merkel last week to admit them through a “humanitarian corridor”. leave as soon as possible for Germany. Lukashenko proposed before speaking with Merkel to organize several flights from Minsk to Munich.
For now, the response from Berlin has been negative. Hence the fear of the Belarusian leadership that the migrants’ stay in the country will last forever and that their possible deportation will lead to disorder and forced expulsions. The spokeswoman for the Belarusian Presidency, Natalia Eismont, said last Thursday that there are about 7,000 migrants in the country from Syria, Iraq, Afghanistan and Libya, of which 5,000 will be repatriated to their countries of origin.
The first plane back to Iraq left Minsk on Thursday with some 400 migrants and a second flight is scheduled before the end of the month. Begún reported on Tuesday that 118 migrants left Belarus on Monday and a similar group of people will do so shortly.
For his part, the spokesman for the US State Department, Ned Price, has condemned that “the Lukashenko regime inhumanely encourages irregular migration across its borders.” Price has advanced that the new round of sanctions that is in preparation aims to make the Belarusian authorities “immediately put an end to their campaign to orchestrate migratory flows through coercion.” In his words, it is about getting Lukashenko “to account for these hybrid actions, but also for his attacks on Human Rights, international norms and democracy or what remains of it within Belarus.”
Gazprom could cut gas flow to Moldova this Wednesday
The ultimatum launched by the Russian energy giant, Gazprom, for Moldova, the poorest country in Europe, to immediately pay 60 million euros, out of a total debt of about 600 million, for previous supplies, expires this Wednesday. If the Chisinau authorities do not pay off the debt, Gazprom could cut off the gas flow amid the current wave of polar cold and in a general context of energy crisis.
The threat was launched on Monday and the Moldovans were given only 48 hours to catch up on payments, the Russian company spokesman Sergei Kuprianov said. According to his words, delivered in statements to the Russian television NTV, “in Gazprom there is a deep disappointment because Moldova does not fulfill its contractual commitments”.
However, Moldovan Prime Minister Andrei Spinu maintains that his government “will fulfill its obligations” by helping the local company Moldovagaz to pay off the accumulated debt. The Moldovan Parliament is due to decide on Thursday regarding the allocation of budgetary funds to repay Gazprom’s debt, but it could be too late.
On November 1, Gazprom restored the gas supply to Moldova after a tug of war with the new contract, which was ultimately extended for the next five years, although under the condition of paying off the outstanding debt.
The tensions between Chisinau and Moscow led the Moldovan government to declare a state of national emergency for 30 days in case the negotiations with Russia failed and the energy crisis worsened. The talks, which took place in St. Petersburg at the end of October, were very tense and lasted for three days.
The problem is that Gazprom unexpectedly raised prices, which caught Moldovan leaders by surprise. Moldova, a poor country with just over two and a half million inhabitants, receives Russian gas through Ukraine, which in turn passes through the breakaway region of Transnistria.
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