Migration via Belarus: Europe’s open flank

Thousands of migrants are on their way to the EU via Belarus. The Belarusian ruler Lukashenko is exploiting a weak point in the EU. Because without a common migration policy, it remains open to blackmail.

It is an escalation with an announcement. It has been evident for weeks that Alexander Lukashenko is pursuing a shameless plan. A campaign of revenge against the EU – not with tanks and grenades, but with unarmed people. With migrants whom he has lured into the country with false promises and whom he is now guiding specifically to the borders of Poland, Latvia and Lithuania.

People as leverage

He uses her as a weapon and puts her life in danger. That is incredibly cynical. And it shows that the Belarusian rulers are entitled to every means to put maximum pressure on the EU. A foreign policy dwarf has found a lever with which he can seriously endanger the democratic confederation.

He plays with the trauma of the European refugee crisis. He produces images that are reminiscent of 2015: people marching towards our borders by the thousands. They bring back memories of feelings of being overwhelmed and losing control, even if there are not nearly as many as there were back then.

EU without a uniform migration policy

The issue of flight and migration is Europe’s open flank, and Lukashenko didn’t have to look long for it. A Union that to this day has no common asylum system, no uniform standards, no fair procedure in dealing with refugees, which is and will remain open to blackmail.

At the moment she is faced with the almost insoluble task of averting the humanitarian catastrophe on her external border without answering injustice with injustice and severity with severity. And to leave the decision of when and for whom to open its borders to no dictator.