Polish security forces arrested around 100 migrants as they tried to cross the border with Belarus overnight from Wednesday to Thursday, with the G7 accusing Minsk of orchestrating the migration crisis.
A few thousand migrants, mostly from the Middle East, have been found for days in freezing temperatures along the Polish border, on the Belarusian side, in the hope of being able to enter the European Union (EU). But Warsaw, along with Belarus’ two other European neighbors, Lithuania and Latvia, refuse their illegal entry.
The West accuses Minsk of having orchestrated this influx of migrants since the summer, in response to Western sanctions against Belarus after the repression in 2020 of a historic opposition movement.
On Thursday, the major powers of the G7 called on Belarus to end the migration crisis “immediately”, accusing Minsk of seeking to “distract” from violations of international law and human rights.
In a statement, the foreign ministers of the United Kingdom (which holds the rotating presidency of the G7), France, the United States, Canada, Germany, Italy, Japan and the European Union “Condemn the orchestration by the Belarusian regime of illegal immigration across its borders”.
“We call on the regime to immediately cease its aggressive and exploitative campaign in order to avoid further death and further suffering,” they say.
The G7 countries have asked Minsk to grant international organizations “immediate and unhindered access to deliver humanitarian aid” and expressed their “solidarity” with Poland, Lithuania and Latvia, which they say are victims of ” a provocative use of illegal immigration ”.
” Special forces “
At the Polish-Belarusian border, attempts to cross still continued.
“A group of about a hundred migrants has been arrested by the Polish services,” said the Polish defense ministry, accusing the Belarusians of “forcing the migrants to throw stones at the Polish soldiers in order to divert their attention” .
Video released by the Defense Ministry shows Polish soldiers surrounding a large group of migrants crouching on the ground at night in a forest near a barbed wire fence.
“Yesterday’s attack [mercredi] was carried out by special forces of Belarus, ”the ministry once again accused.
The incident could not be independently verified as journalists are banned from the immediate border area on the Polish side.
In another incident, video footage released by Belarusian border guards showed a Lithuanian border guard dog biting a man lying on the ground in a sleeping bag.
Lithuanian border guards admitted to the incident, saying they were trying to push a group of migrants back to Belarus and border guards did not see the migrant.
“Technical discussions”
Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko, who has cracked down on democratic opposition and independent media for nearly three decades, has spoken twice in recent days with German Chancellor Angela Merkel about the crisis.
Isolated on the international scene, Minsk said on Wednesday that appeals between Merkel and Lukashenko had resulted in an agreement on the organization of Belarus-EU talks.
But this announcement was immediately qualified by Berlin, which only mentioned cooperation between Minsk and the EU to provide humanitarian aid to migrants stuck at the border, the European Commission only referring to “technical discussions” with Minsk on the repatriation to their country of migrants, Belarus having to “give access to humanitarian aid and provide shelter to migrants in the country”
The Polish government, for its part, warned against any agreement on the crisis that could be concluded “over our heads”.
Russia praised direct contact between the EU and Belarus, denying any involvement in the crisis.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters on Thursday that Europe should not blame Russia for “all the evils.”
Eleven dead
The border crisis has already left at least eleven fatal victims on both sides of the border since the crisis began this summer, aid organizations say.
One of them said that in the early hours of Thursday she helped a Syrian couple who had been in the forest for a month and a half.
“Their one-year-old child died in the forest,” the Polish International Assistance Center (PCPM) said on Twitter.
Poland estimates that there are more than 10,000 migrants in Belarus, the largest group remaining near the closed border post of Bruzgi-Kuznica.
The Belarusian Red Cross says around 1,000 migrants are staying in a warehouse near the crossing and another 800 are camping nearby.
Thursday, a repatriation flight of Iraqi migrants trapped in the region, and organized “on a voluntary basis” by the Iraqi government is due to take place.
At least 200 of its nationals, including women and children, were to leave Minsk for Erbil, capital of Iraqi Kurdistan, and then for Baghdad.