Status: 10/19/2021 11:16 a.m.
In view of the increasing number of refugees on the route via Belarus and Poland to Germany, the federal government is examining further steps. Border controls could also be possible.
Several parliamentary groups in the Bundestag are calling for a tough line against the Belarusian dictator Alexander Lukashenko in the refugee dispute. The EU should tighten the sanctions against the regime in Minsk that have been in place for over a year, said Nils Schmid, foreign policy spokesman for the SPD. Above all, they should hit the country’s regime and economy.
FDP vice parliamentary group leader Stephan Thomae also spoke out in favor of further increasing the pressure on the regime. Thorsten Frei, deputy parliamentary group leader of the Union, described Lukashenko’s behavior as unacceptable. His main concern is to destabilize the EU. The EU must “do everything it can to show Lukashenko his limits.”
With Belarusian help
Especially refugees from Syria, Yemen, Afghanistan and Iraq are currently coming to East Germany via Poland. And with Belarusian help: According to information from the Foreign Office, dictator Lukashenko is having her charter flights bring her into her own country and then drive to Poland’s external EU border. In the past week alone, the federal police in Brandenburg attacked a three-digit number of people in the German-Polish border area.
288 people were arrested last weekend. But Saxony and Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania are also affected. The Federal Government seems willing to actually take the tough line against Belarus called for by the parliamentary groups in the Bundestag. Foreign Minister Heiko Maas described Lukashenko as the “head of a state smuggling ring”.
Airline Penalties
A spokeswoman for the Foreign Office said that solutions will be sought together with other EU countries. This also includes punishing airlines that transport refugees on behalf of Belarus. There are “airlines that also earn money with it”. The Greens in the Bundestag also demanded that the Federal Government and the EU not reject refugees in general. It is a pan-European task to guarantee people seeking protection adequate accommodation and a fair asylum procedure. And within Germany, those seeking protection should be distributed in solidarity to all federal states, said the parliamentary group.
Federal Interior Minister Horst Seehofer wants to present “Options of Action” in the cabinet on Wednesday. The meeting will also deal with the question of whether border controls to Poland will be temporarily reintroduced. The decisive factor will then be how Seehofer positions itself on this question. According to information from ARD capital studios the CSU politician has not yet committed himself.
Letter to Seehofer
Government spokesman Steffen Seibert said the basic attitude of the federal government on the refugee issue has not changed. The situation is also “in no way” comparable to that of 2015. The unions have different opinions on the issue of border controls.
The smaller police union advocates controls, otherwise there is a risk of “collapse” on the German-Polish border, the union wrote in a letter to Seehofer. On the other hand, one thinks quite differently with the police union, in which the greater part of the federal police officers are organized. Border controls are “the last resort,” said Andreas Roßkopf from the police union.
Poland has now built a fence on the border with Belarus. This could reduce the number of refugees, but also exacerbate the humanitarian situation: So far, seven refugees have died on the Poland-Belarus border.