Some tried to cut the barbed wire that stood in front of them. Hundreds of migrants are gathered at the Belarusian border, trying to cross into Poland. Tension is mounting between the two countries, which accuse each other of aggravating the situation. Warsaw believes that Minsk is pushing refugees towards its border and has deployed military personnel to the area. Belarus denounces the Polish reaction and warns its Polish neighbor against any “provocation” at the border, Tuesday, November 9. Franceinfo looks back on this explosive situation on the borders of Europe.
>> DIRECT. Belarus: Paris accuses Minsk of“fueling migrant smuggling” aiming to “destabilize” EU
What is happening at the border between the two countries?
Since Monday morning, dozens of videos posted on social media show groups of hundreds of people walking along a road. A video published by the Polish Ministry of Defense first reports of hundreds of migrants gathered near the Bruzgi-Kuznica border post. Polish government spokesman Piotr Muller then told reporters that a total of 3,000 to 4,000 migrants, mostly from the Middle East, had gathered near the border.
Grupa migrantów znajduje się obecnie w okolicach Kuźnicy pic.twitter.com/w5VxXp9QqQ
– Ministerstwo Obrony Narodowej (@MON_GOV_PL) November 8, 2021
“We want to go to Germany to live there”, claims a man in images broadcast Monday by Belarusian public television, evoking the presence of women and children, including infants. Other images show, on the Belarusian side, armed men in military uniform escorting migrants towards the border, as shown in this subject from France 2.
There are two opposing sides of the story. “According to these refugees, they have come together to form a group large enough to prevent their forced deportation from Poland and to draw the attention of the international community to the lack of respect for human rights in Poland.”, assures a person in charge of the Belarusian border guards. Polish media broadcast interviews with migrants explaining that Belarusians are forcing them to attempt to cross the border. At least ten migrants have died so far in the region, including seven on the Polish side of the border, according to the Polish daily Gazeta Wyborcza.
What are the charges brought by Poland?
Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki denounces Tuesday a “hybrid attack” (i.e. a non-military attack) launched by the regime of Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko. He claims that this crisis threatens the “stability and security” across the European Union. “Sealing the Polish border is in our national interest. But today it is the stability and security of the entire EU that is at stake.”, he wrote on Twitter (in English). “We will not be intimidated and we will defend peace in Europe with our NATO and EU partners”, he adds.
Sealing the polish border is our national interest. But today the stability and security of the entire EU is at stake. This hybrid attack of Lukashenko’s regime is aimed at all of us. We will not be intimidated and will defend peace in Europe with our partners from NATO and EU.
– Mateusz Morawiecki (@MorawieckiM) November 9, 2021
“Interior Ministry forces and soldiers succeeded in stopping the first attempt to cross the border en masse”, adds the Polish Minister of Defense. “The migrants have set up a camp near Kuznica. They are permanently guarded by the Belarusian services”, he adds.
In what context do these tensions arise?
Poland has seen a significant increase in the number of asylum seekers at its borders since August. Warsaw is trying to discourage migrants, mostly from the Middle East, by sending them back to Belarus. Poland said it had sent nearly 31,000 text messages to foreign telephones at the end of September along its border with Belarus. Objective: to deter migrants who are there from entering its territory. “The Polish border is closed. The Belarusian authorities lied to you. Go back to Minsk!” the message said in English.
The situation is such that a state of emergency has been declared in 183 localities located on the border. The public, NGOs and the press are prohibited from entering this area, at the risk of being summoned before the judge. Only residents are allowed to enter this area sealed off by checkpoints.
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The device is not waterproof. If between 400 and 750 crossing attempts are counted every day by the Polish authorities, this number does not take into account successful illegal crossings. In order to ensure the surveillance of the 418 kilometers of border between Poland and Belarus, the Polish deputies released 353 million euros to erect a wall equipped with motion detectors. The whole will be even higher than the barrier built by Hungary in 2015.
On the spot, the migrants walk for kilometers on foot in sometimes negative temperatures, and find themselves stranded in the area. “I wanted to turn around to go back to Baghdad, but a soldier told me that it was forbidden and that I had to stay at the border”Saad Ibrahim Al-Attar, a 65-year-old Iraqi exile, told franceinfo. The story of this former sports teacher suggests an active involvement of Belarusian law enforcement agencies in this migratory flow. “For three days, I told them that I was allowed to move around the country with my visa, but they refused. They cut the barbed wire themselves. [installés par la Pologne] and they pushed everyone through “, he related.
>> On the borders of Europe, migrants trapped in a “hybrid war” between Belarus and Poland
His testimony corroborates the accusations of the international community, which believes that Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko created this situation by welcoming the migrants and then letting them pass through Poland. For the European Union, this is retaliation for the sanctions imposed by Brussels after the brutal repression he carried out against the opposition in his country.
How does Belarus respond?
Opposite, Minsk denies the accusations. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Belarus holds “to warn the Polish side in advance against the use of any provocation” against her “to justify possible illegal warlike actions” against migrants. He denounces the “Warsaw’s long-standing disregard for objective reality and its ostrich-like approaches to solving serious problems”. The Belarusian foreign minister also points to the “untenable attempts” from Poland from “to lay the blame on Belarus” of the migration crisis at the border.
Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko still claims on Tuesday that his country will not “will not kneel” before the European Union. “We are not looking for a fight”, he launches in an interview, excerpts of which were published by the public agency Belta.
How is the international community reacting?
Ursula von der Leyen, the president of the European Commission, on Monday called on the member states of the European Union to approve new sanctions against the Belarusian authorities. “The instrumentalization of migrants for political purposes is unacceptable”, she reacted. According to the President of the Commission, the EU is also examining “how to sanction airlines from third countries” who bring migrants to Belarus.
The European Union on Tuesday suspended arrangements to facilitate the issuance of visas for officials of the Belarusian regime. This decision of the Twenty-Seven (in English) endorses a proposal submitted by the European Commission at the end of September. But the European Union has linked it to the development of the situation since Monday. “Today’s decision testifies once again to our common will to continue fighting this ongoing hybrid attack.”said Slovenian Interior Minister Ales Hojs, whose country holds the rotating EU presidency.
United States “strongly condemn the political exploitation and manipulation of vulnerable people by the regime” Belarusian. Similar position for NATO which ruled on Monday “unacceptable (…) the use of migrants by the Lukashenko regime as a hybrid tactic”.
For his part, the Belarusian president spoke on the phone with his ally Vladimir Putin. According to a Kremlin statement, the two men had “an exchange of views on the refugee situation” on the border between Belarus and Poland. No other details of this exchange have filtered.