Polish-Belarusian border
Meuse on border crisis: “EU will not allow itself to be blackmailed by criminals like Lukashenko”
Thousands of migrants have been waiting in the cold on the Belarusian-Polish border for days
© Leonid Shcheglov / BelTA / AP / DPA
The situation on the Polish-Belarusian border is worsening. While Poland accuses Belarus of having damaged the border barrier, Foreign Minister Maas is defending the EU’s actions.
Poland has accused the Belarusian security forces of damaging the Polish border fortifications on Tuesday night. The Ministry of Defense announced on Tuesday via Twitter that migrants stuck at the border should be able to illegally cross the EU’s external border. A video posted on the Belarusian side of the border shows a person in combat uniform tampering with the barbed wire barn in the dark.
However, the information cannot be independently verified, as Poland has declared a state of emergency in the border region. Journalists and helpers are not allowed in. This also applies to the border area on the Belarusian side.
On Poland’s border with Belarus, thousands of migrants on the Belarusian side have been waiting in makeshift camps in the forest for several days. The Belarusian ruler Alexander Lukashenko is accused of bringing refugees from crisis regions to the EU’s external border in an organized manner.
Maas insists on “orderly immigration”
Federal Foreign Minister Heiko Maas found clear words on Monday. “These people are being instrumentalized by Mr. Lukashenko from Belarus and we mustn’t give in to that either,” he said in the ARD Tagesthemen. We must also (…) make it clear that the EU will not allow itself to be blackmailed by criminals like Lukashenko. “
The people on the border spent another night in the cold in the open air. Pictures from the Belarusian state agency Belta showed migrants wrapped in blankets, while others slept in tents. Many would have spent the night on the cold ground at the Kuznica border crossing. More than three tons of relief supplies were brought into the border area. Red Cross helpers distributed milk, bread and canned meat mainly to women and children.
Maas announced that the federal government is already talking to the countries of origin to lead people back to where they left. The Foreign Minister also emphasized the responsibility for “orderly immigration to the EU”. “What is happening in Poland is that the borders are being protected there.”
Ruler Lukashenko said at a meeting on the situation on the border that it was a matter of protecting the country and the population and preventing clashes. “Instead of looking for solutions together with the Belarusian side, the European Union is dismantling cross-border cooperation.”
Barbed wire, freezing cold and no hope: the images of the humanitarian catastrophe in Europe
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Poland against engagement “over our heads”
Poland’s Deputy Prime Minister Jaroslaw Kaczynski has also expressed skepticism about international involvement in the crisis. “You have to consider that internationalization is certainly necessary, but not in such a way that you talk over our heads, and such proposals are made,” said the head of the national-conservative ruling party PiS on Tuesday the Polish public radio. If international efforts fail, Poland will have to reckon with a deepening of the crisis and “even greater audacity on the part of our opponents,” said Kaczynski.
On Monday evening, Chancellor Angela Merkel (CDU) called the Belarusian ruler Alexander Lukashenko in view of the plight of several thousand people at the border. According to a report on Belarusian State Television, the conversation lasted about 50 minutes. French President Emmanuel Macron had a long phone conversation with Kremlin chief Vladimir Putin about the role Russia could play in resolving the conflict.
At around the same time, Poland’s Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki contacted him speak on Twitter: He referred to an “extraordinary football match” between the Polish national team and Hungary in qualifying for the World Cup.