Migrants: the European Union denounces the instrumentalisation of the crisis by Minsk

Migrant crisis on the border between Poland and Belarus.

On the Polish side, the security forces lock the crossing points on November 8, 2021. REUTERS - Kacper Pempel

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2 min

The tension continues to mount on the border between Poland and Belarus.

Several thousand refugees escorted by Belarus are currently massed at the border.

Poland, NATO and the EU accuse the Belarusian authorities of instrumentalizing this crisis, and of using these migrants to put pressure on Europe. 

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With our correspondent in Brussels

,

,

, special

Faced with accusations from the EU, Belarus recognizes

on its territory, but claims that these men, women and children entered Belarus legally, and that it is Poland and the European Union that are in illegality by refusing to welcome them on their territory.

Minsk denies using these migrants, and accuses European countries of not taking their responsibilities.

The argument may come as a surprise given that these migrants from Middle Eastern countries were indeed brought to Belarus by plane, on planes chartered by the Belarus airline.

Poland further accuses the Belarusian authorities of conveying the migrants to the border, and then of preventing them from remaining on Belarusian soil, of forcing them in some way to go to Poland.

in Sokółka, on the border between Belarus and Poland

The area where the migrants are located was set up by the Polish government as part of the state of emergency.

It is a territory that stretches all along the border between Poland and Belarus, that is to say over 418 kilometers and which is, depending on the location, two to three kilometers wide. .

An area closed to the press and NGOs, which therefore prevents us from visually seeing what is happening there.

Checkpoints have been set up everywhere, only residents of villages located within this perimeter are allowed to enter.

In this area, the Polish authorities have deployed a considerable number of security forces: soldiers, gendarmes, police officers, border guards ... It is a very densely wooded region, both on the Polish side and on the Belarusian side in which it's hard to find your way.

The motivation of the Belarusian regime

According to Poland and the European Union, Minsk is using this migration crisis to put pressure on Brussels, following the sanctions taken against the Belarusian regime.

In the summer of 2020,

was re-elected under fraudulent conditions, he then violently repressed the protest that followed, and in the process the EU took

.

Today, the Belarusian regime would therefore use this migratory weapon either to punish Europe or to obtain a lifting or relaxation of sanctions.

Alexandre Lukashenko is perhaps thinking of Recep Tayyip Erdogan's Turkey, which in 2015 obtained

to stem the flow of refugees to European countries.

Towards new sanctions against Minsk?

But it is a dangerous game that the Belarusian leader is playing, because unlike the crisis of 2015, the migrants who are today on his territory were voluntarily escorted by the country, for the time being what is looming. , this is the reverse of the desired effect.

Brussels plans to take new sanctions against Minsk.

And then another repercussion of the crisis, if Poland and the Baltic countries manage to stem the flow of migrants, it is Belarus which will have to manage the presence on its soil of these thousands of people.

It is therefore a double-edged sword that the Belarusian regime has chosen to use.

Positioning of the European Union

While the Polish government claims that 10,000 additional migrants are approaching the border, in the European Parliament, the president of the conservative group sums up the general feeling and pleads for strong European borders and accuses Alexander Lukashenko of blackmail.

The European Union itself sides with Poland, whose Polish Prime Minister warns that it is the stability and security of the EU that is at stake. The differences between the EU institutions and the government Poles are therefore set aside to face Belarus.

European solidarity is now in order: the President of the European Council, Charles Michel, and the President of the Commission Ursula von der Leyen officially qualify the instrumentalisation of migrants for political ends as unacceptable.

The latter even describes the situation as a " 

 " from Belarus.

It asks the 27 capitals of the Union to adopt an extension of the sanctions against the regime of Alexander Lukashenko.

Ursula von der Leyen even proposes to ban European airspace and airports to airlines which transported migrants to Belarus, thus being guilty of " 

 ".

The head of European diplomacy and a vice-president of the Commission are responsible for visiting the countries of departure of migrants to discuss their readmission.

The EU is therefore moving towards a solution where migrants could cross the border so as not to remain in a risk situation, but to then be returned to their countries.

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• Belarus

• Poland

• European Union

• International Migration

• Ursula von der Leyen