As of: 09/27/2021 8:36 pm
People have been entering the EU illegally via Belarus for months. Poland blames the Belarusian ruler Lukashenko for this. The government in Warsaw wants to extend the emergency in the border area.
Poland wants to extend the state of emergency on the EU’s external border with Belarus by 60 days. The reason for this is the illegal entry of migrants from the neighboring country. Interior Minister Mariusz Kaminski said in Warsaw that he would propose to the cabinet to ask the president for this extension. The situation at the border is serious. “There are a number of provocative incidents involving uniformed Belarusian forces and attempts to violate the integrity of our border,” said Kaminski.
The Polish government accuses the Belarusian ruler, Alexander Lukashenko, of bringing refugees from crisis regions to the EU’s external border in an organized manner. In addition to Poland, Lithuania and Latvia also complain about the increased arrival of migrants, especially from the Middle East, on their borders with Belarus.
Poland registered 9400 attempted border crossings
The Polish parliament has to agree to an extension of the emergency at the border. Kaminski says there have been more than 9,400 attempted illegal border crossings since the beginning of August. A transfer was prevented in around 8,200 cases. Around 1200 refugees were arrested and taken to guarded reception camps. Among a group of 200 migrants, evidence was found in 50 people that they had connections to Islamist or criminal organizations. “These are young, combat-trained men who took part in armed formations in the Middle East,” said Kaminski.
On September 2, Poland imposed a state of emergency for an initial 30 days on a three-kilometer-wide and 418-kilometer-long border strip. Journalists and aid organizations, among others, are prohibited from entering. Poland’s Defense Minister Mariusz Blaszczak said that more soldiers could be sent to the border. There are currently 2,500 soldiers, 4,000 border guards and 600 police officers on duty there.
Belarusian response to sanctions
Lukashenko announced at the end of May that Belarus would no longer prevent migrants from continuing to travel to the EU. He was reacting to tightened Western sanctions against his country. The European Union (EU), the USA and Great Britain had imposed sanctions for Lukashenko’s crackdown on the mass protests after his controversial re-election in August 2020. The EU is now assuming that the Belarusian rulers will retaliate. It is believed that the Belarusian authorities brought people into the country and smuggled them to the borders with the eastern EU states.
“Very unfavorable situation”
Lukashenko rejected a responsibility. He said the migrants used visa-free entry to Belarus to get into Germany, France and the UK. Lukashenko said that his country treated the migrants well, giving them clothes, firewood and scarves. “But they would freeze to death in winter.” A humanitarian catastrophe is raging at the border.
Lukashenko said the situation was exacerbated by the actions of border guards from neighboring countries. He spoke of a “very unfavorable situation” on the border with the EU. The neighboring states had embarked on a course of confrontation with Belarus. According to him, Belarus is looking after 32 migrants who have been stuck at the border for two months. “You don’t want to stay in Belarus. You insist on going to Germany,” said Lukashenko.
NGOs warn of a humanitarian crisis
The Catholic Church in Poland asked for more attention to be paid to the fate of the refugees. “The suffering of these people is our suffering,” said the Archbishop of Gniezno, Wojciech Polak. “Although they are still so brutally abused in the political struggle, we can and must never cease to regard them as our brothers.”
Non-governmental organizations recently warned of a humanitarian crisis in the border areas due to falling temperatures. They also accuse the government in Warsaw of preventing people from applying for asylum in violation of international law. At least six migrants have died on the EU’s borders with Belarus in the past two months.