A more serious accusation can hardly be made against a neighboring country of the European Union: Federal Foreign Minister Heiko Maas has described the Belarusian ruler Alexander Lukashenko as the “head of a state smuggling ring”. Belarus allowed thousands of refugees across the border this autumn alone, the refugee route to Lithuania had started, most recently Poland was hardest hit, and now Germany is also increasingly feeling the effects of the Minsk refugee course.
Many migrants from the Middle East, mostly from Iraq, Central Asia and Africa, have so far benefited from easier, visa-free entry to Belarus, which Lukashenko has permitted by decree. Aircraft to Minsk have started from Damascus, Istanbul, Dubai, Basra and Erbil, full of people who smugglers have promised to get to the EU. Several foreign ministers of the EU countries are therefore campaigning to punish not only the Belarusian state airline Belavia, but also European airlines that cooperate with it with sanctions. Ireland is considered to be the center of such leasing deals with Belarus. Irish Foreign Minister Simon Coveney himself said he was in favor of such sanctions as long as they did not affect existing but future treaties.
In Belarusian social networks such as Tiktok, videos and photos of numerous migrants from the Middle East and Africa are circulating, which are led by interpreters at the airport and in hotels in the Belarusian capital Minsk. They would also be housed in Hrodna, near the Polish border, and in Brest. Since Belarus is an extreme control state, conscious state control of the wave of migration is obvious. According to a report by the Belarusian exile broadcaster Belsat based in Warsaw, an elite unit of the Belarusian border troops is involved in sending migrants to the border.
Lukashenko himself had said after the EU sanctions for the hijacking of a Ryanair plane that he would no longer stop migrants destined for the EU. But now there could possibly be a small change of course. The independent Belarusian online medium Zerkalo reported that travelers from Syria, Egypt, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Yemen, Iran and Nigeria no longer receive visas at Minsk Airport. Experts suspect that the reason is that the poor pandemic situation in Belarus, the approaching winter and, above all, concerns about a fifth EU sanction package, which is likely to hit the already ailing economy in Belarus, are causing the Minsk regime “headaches”.
So far, easier entry into Belarus for people from 76 countries has been a prerequisite for smuggling migrants. It is also conceivable that the so-called pushbacks of the EU border states worsen the situation in Belarus itself, because more and more refugees who have been sent back have to be accommodated there.
Belarus still seems to be ready for an intensified conflict with EU states, as the case of the French ambassador shows. Minsk revoked and expelled Nicolas de Lacoste earlier this week. The ambassador had received a representative of the banned organization Gowori Prawdu (Tell the Truth) last week. Paris cited a dispute over a letter of credentials that Ambassador de Lacoste Lukashenko failed to present as the reason for the deportation – because he did not recognize his election victory last year.