Border with Belarus: New EU sanctions and transit rumors

What to do in the border dispute with Belarus The EU is planning new sanctions, Poland is considering supporting NATO. And Russian President Putin wants to help without mediating. Meanwhile, rumors of emigration are circulating in the border area.

Federal Foreign Minister Heiko Maas has threatened airlines that continue to be involved in the transport of refugees via Belarus with the withdrawal of overflight rights and landing permits in the EU. “All airlines should follow the example of Turkish Airlines and others and consistently refuse Lukashenko’s smuggling business,” Maas wrote on Twitter.

“For anyone who doesn’t do that, there will be tough sanctions,” said the SPD politician. Overflight rights and landing permits in the EU are then “no longer inviolable”. Maas told the newspapers of the “Funke Mediengruppe” that it was possible to disengage from the chain of smugglers.

Syrian airline stops flights to Minsk

The private Syrian airline Cham Wings had previously announced that it had suspended its flights to Minsk for all passengers because it “could not distinguish between travelers and migrants”.

The Turkish government had banned people from Syria, Iraq and Yemen from leaving for Belarus. “Because of the problem of illegal border crossings between the European Union and Belarus”, citizens from the three countries are no longer allowed to buy plane tickets or take flights to Belarus for the time being, said the Turkish civil aviation authority.

Borrell speaks to Belarusian foreign minister

Faced with the crisis involving thousands of migrants on the border between Poland and Belarus, the EU Foreign Affairs Representative Josep Borrell telephoned the Foreign Minister of Belarus, Vladimir Makej. Borrell then warned on Twitter: “People should not be used as weapons.”

The Belarusian state news agency Belta reported that Makej had announced that his country had taken steps against mass migration from Asia, Africa and the Middle East. Minsk is ready for dialogue.

Putin offers to help

Meanwhile, Russian President Vladimir Putin has now offered help in view of the situation on the EU’s external border. Moscow is ready to contribute “in any way possible” to a solution, Putin said in an interview broadcast on Russian state television. A Kremlin spokesman announced last week that Russia wanted to get involved.

In a previously broadcast part of the interview, Putin had also expressed hope for a conversation between the incumbent Chancellor Angela Merkel and the Belarusian ruler Alexander Lukashenko. Merkel had previously asked the Russian President for help. Russia’s head of state has a direct line to Lukashenko. So far, Putin has not given the prospect of mediation of his own.

In the TV interview, Putin denied that the governments in Minsk and Moscow were behind the influx of migrants on the Polish and Lithuanian borders. The Russian President blamed the West for the crisis and referred to the conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Poland is considering requesting a special NATO meeting

The EU accuses the Russian-backed Belarusian government of orchestrating the crisis in order to put pressure on the international community that has imposed sanctions on the country and wants to tighten them. Lukashenko repeatedly denied these allegations. So far, at least eight people have died in the Belarusian border area.

According to Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki, Poland is considering, together with Lithuania and Latvia, requesting a special NATO meeting on the situation at the border. “We are discussing with Latvia, and especially with Lithuania, whether or not to activate Article 4 of NATO,” Morawiecki told the PAP news agency. This article provides for consultation if a member thinks that the integrity of their territory, political independence or security is threatened.

For example, Turkey recently requested consultations under Article 4 when Turkish soldiers were killed in an air strike in northern Syria in early 2020.

Further EU sanctions against Belarus planned

The EU foreign ministers want to meet on Monday to expand sanctions against Belarus. “Lukashenko was wrong. He thought that his behavior could turn the tables and force us to lift the sanctions. The opposite is the case,” said EU Foreign Affairs Representative Josep Borrell of the Journal du Dimanche. This lays the foundation for everyone involved in the people smuggling to be punished.

Meanwhile, the human rights organization Pro Asyl called on the EU to allow migrants to enter the country. “These include people who are fleeing war, terror and persecution. They have a right to protection and asylum in the EU,” explained Managing Director Günter Burkhardt. “We demand that Germany allow all those who have family connections to Germany to enter Germany.”

The foreign policy expert of the FDP, Alexander Graf Lambsdorff, spoke in the ARD special broadcast Report from Berlin and World mirror for the fact that the people at the border would have to be taken care of. He refused your admission. “I am of the opinion that this blackmailing of Lukashenko, this terribly cynical game that he is playing there, should conjure up a political crisis,” said Lambsdorff. “I think we have to be clear that Europe must not allow itself to be blackmailed at this point – but must also remain true to its values.”

Poland is taking action against rumors of transit

The new President of the Bundestag Bärbel Bas demanded that Europe must quickly agree on how the migrants could be helped. The SPD politician told the newspapers of the “Funke Mediengruppe” that they were being brought to the border with false promises and abused. She warned: “We must not allow people and their fate to be used as leverage.”

Expectations are also high among migrants. The Polish government warned of rumors by SMS that people would be brought to Germany. The news was circulating that buses were coming to pick up people and that Poland had given permission to go through, according to the short message. The government is taking action against these rumors, Interior Minister Mariusz Kaminski wrote on Twitter. The people in the border area are sent security instructions in English on their mobile phones with the words: “This is a lie and nonsense! Poland will continue to secure its border with Belarus.”