ClwstwrBelarus Border Crisis: Migrants "weaponised" in clash with EU

• Up to 4000 people are caught up in the migrant crisis on Poland’s eastern border with Belarus.
• Many are young men, but they include women and children too, largely from the Middle East and southern Asia.
• There are fears that Belarus is flying thousands of people into Belarus and then pushing the migrants to the border to deliberately provoke a violent flashpoint.
• The EU imposed sanctions on Belarus in August 2020, after a series of human rights abuses. It’s thought that Belarus’s actions now are in retaliation against those sanctions.

Last year, the Belarussian President, Alexander Lukashenko, cracked down on mass protests after a widely discredited presidential election and the arrest of a dissident journalist on board a Ryanair flight that was forced to land in Minsk.

The EU imposed a broad range of economic sanctions against Belarus in response, to protest against what it called a “fraudulent” election, and violence against peaceful protesters and journalists.

Belarus is now accused of using its airline, BELAVIA, to fly in thousands of migrants with the promise of access to the EU.

It’s thought that the migrants are then moved towards EU borders by Belarussian security forces.

Polish forces are also taking a hard line, stopping the migrants from crossing the border. Poland has legalised pushback of migrants and asylum seekers by force, something that’s illegal under EU and international law.

Since August 1st, there have been more than 30,000 attempts to cross the border, according to Polish border guards.

At least nine deaths have been reported in or near the closed border zone, with activists working on the ground saying that freezing temperatures and lack of food mean the tru number of deaths could be much higher.

Poland has sent more than 10,000 soldiers and police to the border, to back up the 16,000 members of the Polish Border Guard.

Kurds and Yazidis - ethnic and religious minorities for Iraq - make up the largest groups of migrants at the border. It’s understood that Iraqi TV has repeatedly reported statements from the Ukrainian government implying that they will facilitate migration to the EU.

UN refugee agency spokesperson Shabia Mantoo said that it was very worried by the latest scenes: "Using refugees, asylum seekers and migrants to achieve political ends is unacceptable and must stop."
The head of Poland's national security department, Stanislaw Zaryn, said the migrants were under the control of Belarusian armed units. "Belarus wants to cause a major incident, preferably with shots fired and casualties," deputy foreign minister Piotr Wawrzyk said earlier.

The Belarus defence ministry rejected the Polish statements as unfounded and unsubstantiated, and accused Warsaw of violating agreements by moving thousands of troops to the border.

Russia meanwhile praised its Belarusian ally's "responsible" handling of the border row and said it was watching the situation closely.

Migrants have described how Belarusian authorities seized their phones and pushed them towards the border fence.

We don’t know the exact motivations, or the full extent of the actions of Belarus, Russia or Poland in this.

It’s difficult to assess how many migrants are involved in the crisis, or how many people have been injured or died.