Status: 11/17/2021 1:56 p.m.
According to the Polish government, Belarus bussed migrants from a makeshift camp on the border. People would be taken “to other places” in buses. Exactly where is unclear.
According to the Polish government, Belarus has started to take the migrants camped at the closed Kuznica-Brusgi border crossing to another location by bus. “I have received the information that Lukashenko has provided the first buses that the migrants get on and drive away. The tent camp near Kuznica is emptying,” said Poland’s Deputy Interior Minister Maciej Wasik on TV Republika. “It looks like Lukashenko has lost this battle for the border,” continued Wasik.
State-affiliated Belarusian media published videos of four coaches. These should bring some of the migrants “to other places”, it said, citing the Red Cross. This should prevent the new warehouse from getting too full. It is unclear exactly where the migrants will be taken.
Situation calmer again after collisions
According to estimates by the Polish border guards on Tuesday, around 2,000 migrants were staying near Kuznica. There are said to have been clashes between them and Polish security forces. Poland used water cannons. According to Polish information, the migrants threw stones, bottles and clods of earth. They were also equipped with burst grenades and slingshots. Warsaw accused Lukashenko of distributing smoke grenades and other weapons to people along the border.
The information cannot be independently verified as Poland does not allow media representatives into the border region.
Today the Polish authorities said that the situation has calmed down. They registered a good 160 attempts to illegally cross the Polish border.
On Poland’s border with Belarus, thousands of migrants on the Belarusian side are waiting in makeshift camps at temperatures around freezing point. The Polish government and the EU are accusing the authoritarian Belarusian ruler Alexander Lukashenko of targeting people from crisis regions in order to smuggle them into the EU.
Poland criticizes attempted mediation
In view of the plight of the migrants, Chancellor Angela Merkel spoke to Lukashenko on the phone on Monday evening. On the same day, French President Emmanuel Macron also spoke to Russian President Vladimir Putin about the role Russia could play in resolving the conflict. Putin spoke to Lukashenko on Tuesday.
Poland criticized Merkel and Macron’s attempt to mediate. The government in Warsaw had been informed in advance of Merkel’s and Macron’s phone calls, government spokesman Piotr Müller told TVP. He personally wondered about Merkel’s conversation with Lukashenko, because this was “in a way the acceptance of his choice,” said Müller. “I understand the situation, but I think it’s not a good move.”
The EU does not officially recognize Lukashenko as President. The background to this is massive allegations of fraud in the election and the actions of Belarusian security forces against demonstrators and civil society.