Migrant pressure on the EU

The migrant crisis on the Poland - Belarus border is worsening

Corina Cristea, 11.11.2021, 13:50

As relations between Minsk and the EU deteriorate and Belarus’s
president Aleksandr Lukashenko strengthens his aggressive rhetoric, the refugee
crisis at the Union’s eastern border risks turning into a humanitarian disaster.

This is precisely why, at the request of France,
Ireland and Estonia, the Security Council decided to convene to look for solutions
for the thousands of people who are trying to get to Western Europe but are
kept in inhumane conditions at the border.

For several months now, Belarus has been encouraging
Middle East migrants to cross its territory on their way to the EU via Poland
and the Baltic states, and the crisis has been deepening these past few days, when
thousands of refugees crowded at the border and tried to cross into Poland
illegally.

Poland has deployed troops on the border to push back
the migrants, and informed its NATO allies of the crisis. The North-Atlantic
Alliance is monitoring the situation and promises to safeguard the security of
its members, including Lithuania and Latvia, who are also facing migrant
pressure from Belarus.

In fact, this is not the first time that the three EU
member states see migratory waves, mostly Syrian, Iraqi and Afghan nationals trying
to get illegally into Germany. The EU has repeatedly accused Belarus of pushing
these migrants into European territory in retaliation to the sanctions
triggered by Alexandr Lukashenko’s election fraud last year and by the brutal
crackdown on the post-election protests.

To add to the complications, Russia, a supporter of
the Lukashenko regime, has deployed 2 nuclear-capable bombers to fly over
Belarus. Media agencies note that a growing number of EU voices blame the
crisis on Russia’s president Vladimir Putin, but Kremlin dismissed the
allegations as unacceptable. President Putin, contacted on the phone by the
German Chancellor Angela Merkel in order to put an end to the crisis, suggested
direct talks between the EU and Minsk, to discuss the issue.

The EU border is the scene of a brutal hybrid attack with
Belarus cynically and shockingly using the desperation of migrants as a weapon,
said the president of the European Council, Charles Michel. The situation on
the border between Belarus and Poland is not a migrant crisis, but an attempt
by Minsk to destabilise its neighbours, the EC president Ursula von der Leyen
said in her turn, warning that the Union would extend its sanctions against
individuals and entities in Belarus. (tr. A.M. Popescu)