First Deputy Permanent Representative of Russia to the UN Dmitry Polyansky called the situation unfolding on the border between Belarus and Poland a shame and a violation of international norms. Writes about it TASS…
The migration crisis on the border of Belarus and the EU countries began in the spring of 2021 after the president of the republic, Alexander Lukashenko, threatened to weaken control over the flow of refugees and drug trafficking. This happened against the backdrop of yet another aggravation of relations between Minsk and the West.
Since then, groups of migrants have been at the Belarusian-Polish border. They wander through the forests and try to penetrate the territory of Europe. According to the deputy head of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Poland, Blazhey Pobozy, there are now from several hundred to thousands of migrants at the border, mostly men aged about 30. In total, the Polish authorities counted that up to 20 thousand migrants arrived in Belarus, wishing to cross the border and enter the European Union.
The situation worsened after two large groups of migrants managed to break through the border of Belarus and Poland on the night of November 10. Some illegal immigrants were brought back to the border line. The search for the rest continues.
On the afternoon of November 11, Latvian Defense Minister Artis Pabriks said that the Baltic countries and Poland refuse to accept new migrants from Belarus.
Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki even called the situation on the border a war of a new type, and he considered civilians and the media as ammunition in this war. The government of the republic urgently increased the number of military personnel operating on the border with Belarus to 15 thousand people. And Polish President Andrzej Duda said that the Polish security forces are on full alert.
The countries of the European Union are confident that official Minsk bears responsibility for the crisis and are threatening to impose new sanctions. In particular, the Polish prime minister considers the events on the border to be political blackmail on the part of Russia and Belarus.
Olaf Scholz, candidate for Chancellor of the Federal Republic of Germany from the Social Democratic Party (SPD), expressed a similar position. He called Lukashenko an irresponsible dictator and said that Lukashenko’s migration policy “must and will have consequences.”
In addition, the European Commission said that the EU could impose sanctions on about 45 people due to the refugee situation in Belarus. A source RIA News the European department said that the sanctions list will include about fifty officials of Belarus. Their assets in the EU will be frozen, they will also be banned from entering the bloc’s countries, and their visas will be canceled. These persons, according to the agency’s interlocutor, will be Belarusian officials, but also people responsible for the movement of immigrants to Belarus.
In Sweden, Russia was blamed for the migration crisis. Defense Minister Peter Hultqvist said that Russia is deliberately diverting the attention of the international community from the situation in Ukraine with the help of the migration crisis on the border of Belarus and Poland.
Air carriers are also blamed for this situation – for example, the Russian Aeroflot, Belavia and Turkish Turkish Airways. Restrictions could be introduced early next month, according to Bloomberg. According to the publication, the United States and, possibly, Great Britain will join the sanctions.
In response to this, according to the representative of the office of the President of Poland Jakub Kumokh, Turkish Airlines promised not to let the citizens of Iraq, Syria and Yemen on board their planes flying to Minsk. Holders of diplomatic passports will be an exception. At the same time, the airline itself has not yet commented on the situation.
The European Union (EU) has asked Russia to use its influence over Belarus to solve the problem of the influx of migrants to the border with Poland.
In turn, Russian President Vladimir Putin spoke in favor of restoring ties between the countries of the European Union and the authorities of Belarus. The migration crisis on the Polish-Belarusian border was one of the topics of his telephone conversation with the acting German Chancellor Angela Merkel. According to Putin, Brussels should restore contacts with Minsk in order to resolve the migration crisis on the border with Poland.
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