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A group of migrants tried to break through the border between Belarus and Poland. This is shown in a video from the Polish Ministry of Defense.
Update from November 8th, 8:30 p.m .: On Monday evening, EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen (CDU) made an official statement on the events on the border between Poland and Belarus and sharply criticized the actions of the Belarusian regime. “Belarus must stop risking people’s lives,” begins the 63-year-old statement. “The instrumentalization of migrants for political purposes on the part of Belarus is not acceptable.”
Von der Leyen condemns the “hybrid attack” from Belarus and calls for expanded sanctions
“The government of Belarus must understand that it is not getting any closer to achieving its goals by putting the EU under pressure through the cynical instrumentalization of migrants,” von der Leyen continued. In this context, the President of the EU Commission had already spoken to Poland’s Prime Minister Morawiecki, as well as the heads of government of Lithuania and Latvia, assuring them the solidarity of the European Union.
In her statement, von der Leyen also called on the EU member states to agree to extended sanctions against Belarus in response to this “hybrid attack”. The 63-year-old also announced that her deputies Margaritas Schinas and Josep Borell will visit important countries of origin and transit countries in the coming days and hold talks with the local governments. In addition, the Commission will work with the United Nations to find a way to prevent the humanitarian crisis from worsening further and to enable migrants to “safely return to their countries of origin”.
Situation escalates: migrants try to break through on Poland’s border – video shows action
Update from November 8th, 6.15 p.m .: The situation on the Polish-Belarusian border seems to be getting worse. As the Polish Ministry of Defense announced on Twitter, a larger group of migrants is said to have tried to break through the fortified border fortifications on Monday. The Polish authorities released a video showing a group of men with spades and branches attempting to tear down the barbed wire fence. The Polish military used tear gas against the migrants.
The Ministry of Defense writes: “All activities of the migrants are carried out under the supervision and control of Belarusian soldiers.” For several weeks it has been reported that the Belarusian government organized by the ruler Alexander Lukashenko is sending migrants to the EU’s external border between Poland and Belarus would. The events are seen as a provocation against the EU, which Belarus recently imposed increased sanctions.
Kuźnica: an attempt forcing the 🇵🇱Polish border https://t.co/zj34BfJQlm
– Poland MOD 🇵🇱 (@Poland_MOD) November 8, 2021
On Monday, the human rights organization Pro Asyl called for the incoming migrants to be taken in and cared for by the Polish military. “Maintaining access to asylum, taking in refugees and ensuring their care, we have agreed on this in international treaties, that is our answer to dictators,” said pro-asylum European spokesman Karl Kopp on Monday.
Large group of migrants on the move in Belarus – “under the control of armed units”?
First report from November 8th:
Warsaw / Minsk – Winter is approaching, and more and more people are playing the game in the struggle between the Belarusian ruler Alexander Lukashenko and the EU in the form of neighboring Poland. According to the authorities in Belarus *, several hundred migrants set out on foot to the border with the EU’s neighboring country Poland. The border guards said on Monday that they had taken “all necessary measures” to ensure security. Poland, in turn, announced that it would strengthen protection at the EU’s external border and set up a crisis team. The cold forests around the border region have already claimed many lives.
Lukashenko is very specifically suspected of having people flown into Belarus from various crisis regions in order to smuggle them into the EU *. In response to sanctions against his country, he had declared that he would no longer stop people on their way to a better life in the “cozy West”. In the past few months, thousands of border crossings from Belarus in the direction of Poland and Lithuania have already been reported. For many people from Syria or Iraq, Germany should be a destination.
Border crossing from Belarus to Poland:
Germany should be a main target of the people. In Saxony and Brandenburg, an increasing number of * people from Poland have been arriving at the reception centers in the last few weeks, originally from Syria, Iraq or Afghanistan.
“Adopt a revolution”, an initiative that supports revolutionaries within Syria, shares a video on Twitter that is supposed to show a stream of people on their way to the Polish border:
It seems that in these minutes refugees are trying out #Belarus at #Bruzgi across the border to #Poland get. Looks like #MarchofHope 2015.@TadeuszGiczan is there on site.#OpenTheBorder #NoPushback @mauerfalleu https://t.co/l2sDL1f9ux
– Adopt a Revolution (@AdoptRevolution) November 8, 2021
In the same context, the Seebrücke association speaks of “reports that people have been threatened with beatings if they do not cross the border into Poland.”
Does the Belarusian government force migrants to Poland?
From the point of view of the Polish government, the migrants could try to break through the border near the town of Kuznica Bialostocka. And the Polish government also speaks of reports that migrants’ walk to the border no-man’s country could be anything but voluntary.
“According to the latest information, this huge group of migrants is under the control of armed Belarusian forces who decide where to go and where not,” wrote intelligence coordinator Stanislaw Zaryn on Twitter. He spoke of another hostile action by the neighboring country against Poland. The Polish government therefore convened a crisis team. (dpa / cat) *Merkur.de is an offer from IPPEN.MEDIA.
#Migrants #break #Polands #border #von #der #Leyen #appalled #hybrid #attack