First modification:
Tension increases on the border between Belarus and Poland due to the wave of migrants trying to enter Europe through Belarusian territory. The situation turned into a ‘tug of war’ between Belarus and the European Union: Brussels accuses Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko of promoting clandestine migration to the EU as a weapon to destabilize the region and also points to it as human trafficking. Minsk, for its part, criticizes the foreign policy of the European Union. Meanwhile, an armed confrontation is feared due to the movement of troops in the area.
Many migrants, mostly Iraqis, Iranians and Syrians, although there are also Afghans and Africans, depart from their countries both by land and by plane to Turkey. Its point of arrival is Istanbul, the metropolis is a key point to define which route to take to reach the European Union through Greece, the Balkans or Belarus.
Those who arrive in Belarus try to enter Poland, which is the longest border, they also try to cross into Lithuania or Latvia, all three are states of the European Union. While some intend to stay in those countries and start a new life, the vast majority have Germany as their final destination.
The migration crisis has already been described by some sectors as “a new war front” unleashed by Belarus with the help of Russia, which seeks to respond to the pressure that the European Union has exerted on the former Soviet republic, after the last presidential elections. August 2020, in which Lukashenko was reelected for a controversial sixth term. Now, faced with this new scenario of migratory crisis, Brussels announces the imposition of more sanctions.
Is this really a Belarusian plan that uses migration to destabilize Europe? What can the European Union do in this situation? What role does Russia play? How can the international community respond? And, above all, what to do with the thousands of migrants stranded on the border between Belarus and Poland in deplorable conditions, exposed to human rights violations? We analyze it in this edition of El Debate with the help of our guests:
– Yolanda Vega, spokesperson on European issues at Amnesty International Spain.
– Nicolás de Pedro, senior analyst at the Institute for Statecraft in London.
– And in the France 24 study we are accompanied by Aneta De La Mar Ikonomova, historian, internationalist and teacher at the Externado University of Colombia.
.