Artificial migration crisis
Hundreds of Iraqis leave Belarus – return flights from Minsk to Erbil have started
Alexander Lukashenko visits a center for migrants who are staying in Belarus after a failed attempt to cross the Polish border into the EU
© MAXIM GUCHEK / AFP
Several hundred Iraqis returned to their homeland after their attempt to enter the EU from Belarus failed. The Iraqi airline Iraqi Airways takes off several flights from Minsk.
After staying in Belarus for weeks on the border with Poland, hundreds of migrants have returned to their homeland, Iraq. A Boeing B747-400 aircraft of the Iraqi airline Iraqi Airways destined for Erbil took off from Minsk Airport on Saturday. Another plane to Erbil was announced for the evening, as the airport announced.
For weeks, thousands of migrants have been trying to get from Belarus across the EU’s external borders to Poland or the Baltic states. The EU accuses the authoritarian Belarusian ruler Alexander Lukashenko of targeting people from crisis regions to Minsk in order to smuggle them into the EU. After more and more EU sanctions against Belarus came into force, Lukashenko had declared that he would no longer stop migrants on their way to the West.
According to the information provided by those concerned, the returns are voluntary because they no longer see any way of admission to the EU. There have been several such flights recently. In an emergency shelter in a logistics center in Brusgi on the Polish border, however, there are still many people who are mainly striving for Germany.
The border guards in Poland had registered more than 200 attempts by migrants from Belarus to illegally cross the border of the EU member state on Friday. This was thwarted, the authority announced on Twitter on Saturday. Six foreigners from Georgia and Russia were arrested. At one section near Bialowieza, the officers repulsed “an attack on the border” by a group of around 100 people.
In view of the migration crisis between Belarus and the EU, the Interior Minister of Baden-Württemberg and CDU Federal Vice-President Thomas Strobl calls for better protection of the borders – up to and including their closure as a “last resort”. “We must quickly put a stop to the illegal smuggling of asylum seekers from Belarus into Germany,” said Strobl of the German Press Agency in Stuttgart. Border protection must be intensified, for example through more veil searches. “Further possibilities are increased pushbacks or – as a last resort – the temporary closure of the border crossings.” A temporary closure of the border crossings must be examined.
Belarus is still in crisis
NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg does not consider the crisis to be over yet. “The intensity has changed quite a bit, of course it’s not as serious as it was a few days ago. But I think it’s too early to say it’s over,” said Stoltenberg in a Saturday night broadcast on Latvian television Interview. “We have to be vigilant, we have to keep a close eye on developments and continue to send out clear messages.”
The Lukashenko regime used innocent people, and that was cynical and inhuman, said Stoltenberg. NATO stands in full solidarity with all affected allies. With a view to the clear deployment of troops on the border between Russia and Ukraine, Stoltenberg also called on Moscow to be transparent and restrained.
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The situation on the borders with Belarus and between Russia and Ukraine will also be the topic of the meeting of NATO foreign ministers on Tuesday and Wednesday in Riga. Together with EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, Stoltenberg traveled to Lithuania and Latvia in advance on Sunday to exchange ideas with the political leadership of the two Baltic countries.