The border areas between Poland and Belarus have become the latest front line for the Western bloc in their struggle against the Russian-Belarusian alliance. According to the Polish News Agency reported on November 9, Marusz Kamiski, head of the Polish Ministry of Internal Affairs and Administration, said that about 1,500 people have tried to force their way into Poland in recent days. There are currently about 4,000 illegal immigrants in Belarus near the Polish border, "who may attack the Polish border again in the next few days." ”
In this regard, Polish Prime Minister Mateus Morawiecki pointed the finger at Russia at the special meeting of the Polish parliament held on the 9th: Belarusian President Lukashenko is not an independent participant in this crisis, and the main decision-maker is Russia.
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Video footage shows: On the 8th, polish border police used tear gas to drive away the crowd, because many people tried to forcibly cross the border through the barbed wire fence. Source: Russia Today
Poland: There are 4,000 illegal immigrants on the Russian-Polish border for a month
According to a november 9 report by radio station Bialystok, the largest city in northeastern Poland, border guards in the city revealed that on the 9th, two large groups of illegal immigrants had forcefully broken through the fences set up by Polish military and police in krynki district and the village of Biloviza and entered Poland from Belarusian territory.
According to the report, driven by Polish border guards, some illegal immigrants have returned to the Belarusian side of the border line, and the rest have fled into Poland, and the police are searching and wanted. Polish services say there are at least a few hundred people left on the Belarusian side who will receive food from Belarusians. These migrants have tents, sleeping bags, and at night they burn campfires to keep warm.
According to the Polish News Agency reported on November 9, Marusz Kamiski, head of the Polish Ministry of Interior and Administration, said that about 1,500 people have tried to force their way into Poland in recent days. There are currently about 4,000 illegal immigrants in Belarus near the Polish border, "who may attack the Polish border again in the next few days." "There are about 15,000 immigrants on the Belarusian side. About 40 weekly flights depart from Turkey, Syria and other parts of the world to Minsk airport in Belarus. "We are trying to communicate with the governments and airlines of these countries to limit the number of flights. Although communication is effective, the border situation is still not optimistic."
Polish Defense Minister Marius Baszczak reported on November 9 that the number of soldiers of the Polish army on the border had increased to 15,000. The way people attacking the Polish border now behave in a somewhat different way, as the migrants who tried to cross the border two days ago were a large group, and now despite the large number of immigrants, the group is small.
Polish intelligence predicted that the climax of refugees storming the border could occur on November 10-11.
According to the Russian News Agency reported on November 9, the Belarusian State Border Guard Commission said that Polish soldiers lined up military equipment along the Border between Belarus and Poland, and some migrants fell ill due to tear gas. In order to exert psychological pressure on the refugees throughout the night, the Polish army turned on loudspeakers, searchlights and strobe observers. Gunfire can also be heard in the vicinity.
In front of the obstacles, the refugees tried to explain to the Polish Border Guard that they had left their country because their lives were at stake.
The Polish Defense Ministry tweeted on Nov. 10 that Belarusian border guards had opened fire in front of migrants, intimidating them.
Screenshot of the Polish Ministry of Defense Twitter
Prime Minister of Poland: Russia manipulates White Russia into wages a war on immigration against Poland
According to Russia Today reported on November 9, Polish Prime Minister Mateus Morawiecki pointed the finger at Russia at a special meeting of the Polish parliament held on the 9th. He said that since the 8th, thousands of illegal immigrants are facing a confrontation between the Polish police and the army, and this confrontation is deliberately planned.
Mr. Morawiecki said the migrants were not legal refugees, they were being used as "human shields" to destabilize Poland, the Baltic states and the European Union as a whole.
Moravitsky said Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko was not an independent participant in the crisis, and that the main decision-maker was Russia.
Marusz Kamiski, head of the Polish Ministry of The Interior and Administration, said as early as June this year, Poland knew that someone was going to use immigrants to attack allies of the Baltic states, according to the Polish news agency reported on November 9.
Kamisky said Lukashenko's aim was to lift EU sanctions on Belarus through these means. He is a "badly wounded" politician who wants Belarus's legitimately elected president to be recognized, he wants to force a dialogue between Poland, Lithuania and the European Union, and he wants to be a partner.
On the 8th, Polish soldiers stood guard near the barbed wire fence on the border between Poland and Belarus. Picture from Russia Today
In response to a question about returning migrants to their home countries, Morawiecki said that there are currently 1,800 people in the Polish alien center, about 300 of whom have decided to return to their countries of origin, "we charter a plane for these people and send them back".
Morawiecki said that people who are trying to cross the border illegally are indeed in trouble because Belarus does not allow them to retreat, and if they want to return to their own country, we consider transferring them to a Polish airport. But the reality is not so easy, because the country of origin does not want to accept them.
On November 8, in the Grodno region of Belarus, migrants gathered near barbed wire in an attempt to cross the border with Poland. Pictured from Reuters
For the first time, Lithuania declared a state of emergency on its border with Belarus to prevent migrants from crossing the border
According to Polish radio reported on November 10, the Lithuanian government has approved the proposal of the Ministry of the Interior to declare a state of emergency in the border area between Lithuania and Belarus on the 9th to strengthen border protection.
The state of emergency covers the border areas that enter the country for 5 kilometers and where migrants stay. In the area itself, the movement of vehicles will be restricted. Immigrants already in Lithuanian centres have limited rights to correspondence and telephone conversation.
Those who want to travel to the border must obtain appropriate permission from the border authorities. This form of state of emergency will be temporarily maintained for one month (effective on the 10th and valid until 10 December).
At the same time, the Lithuanian Border Guard said that on the 9th, they recorded more than 270 attempts by people to illegally cross the Lithuanian-Belarusian border.
In June, these illegally entered the country began to pour into Lithuania from Belarus, far exceeding the number of arrivals in previous years, according to the Observer Network. It is reported that the number of refugees illegally entering Lithuania in 2020 was 81, compared with 46 in 2019. When the first refugees appeared, the Lithuanian government built the camps. However, with the increase in the number of illegal entrants, temporary shelters on the Lithuanian border have become a headache for border city governments. In addition, the Government of Lithuania has sent reinforcements and helicopters to patrol the border. At the same time, the Lithuanian government accused Belarus of transporting refugees from countries such as Iraq to Minsk, the capital of Belarus, and then sending them to Lithuania.
Russia suggests that the EU could pay Belarus to end the migration crisis
Belarus denied creating a migration crisis, according to the Russian Satellite News Agency reported on November 9, in response to Poland's accusation that Belarus created a migration crisis, Lukashenko responded on the 9th that Belarus has no intention of attacking Poland, as for the situation of immigration in the Middle East in Belarus and the Polish border area, the EU wants to divert the attention of the public to its own problems.
"Russia Today" reported on November 9 that Russian Foreign Minister Lavrov said on the 9th that the EU's immigration policy is the reason for the worsening of the humanitarian crisis on the border between Poland and Belarus, and the EU can provide cash to Belarus to help solve this problem.
"When the question of accepting or rejecting refugees arises, EU countries need to have consistent standards," Lavrov continued: "Yesterday, in a political science discussion, it was asked why, when refugees pass through Turkey, the EU allocates funds to enable them to stay in Turkey, and why is it impossible to help Belarusians in this way? ”
From 2014 to the end of 2020, the EU handed over 6 billion euros to Turkey as part of Turkey's deal to host refugees, many of whom fled the Syrian civil war, without allowing them to travel north to Central Europe. In June, the EU was also considering expanding existing projects to provide another 3.5 billion euros.
Immigration at the border. Pictured from Reuters
Russia Today reported on November 8 that the situation is beginning to change as relations between the European Union and Belarus deteriorate after the 2020 presidential elections and mass protests. The results of the election were rejected by the European Union, and some of Belarus' direct EU neighbours actively supported the Belarusian opposition.
The European Union introduced new sanctions after a commercial flight carrying opposition blogger Roman Protasevich was forced to land in Minsk in May.
It was reported that this was due to the threat of terrorism, but as soon as the plane landed, Protasevich was immediately detained by the Belarusian authorities. However, the alleged threat has not been confirmed. The incident sparked outrage in the European Union, leading to sanctions and severe air restrictions on Belarus, dealing a blow to the country's economy.
In retaliation for the sanctions, Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko said at the end of June that Belarus would no longer block migrants seeking to enter the European Union. "They asked us to protect them from smuggling and drugs," Lukashenko said. I just want to ask, are you crazy? You have waged a hybrid war against us and are now asking us to protect you as we have done before. Shortly after Lukashenko's statement, the country's neighbors reported a surge in attempts to cross the border. Flights departing from Iraq began to increase in the context of EU restrictions on Belarusian airspace.
In early July, Lithuania declared a state of emergency after the discovery of 150 Iraqi migrants who had illegally crossed the border from Belarus. Poland declared a state of emergency, saying border guards were detained in August eight times as many as in all of 2020.
Senior EU officials condemned Lukashenko's move, with senior European Parliament official David Sassoli accusing him of "playing with people's lives", while European Commission President Ursula von de L'Én said the increase in the number of migrants showed a clear "pattern of political motivation".
While accusing Belarus of waging a "hybrid war," European neighbors have stepped up their borders with Belarus. Lithuania and Poland erected military-grade barbed wire fences at the most vulnerable points on their borders. Belarus refused to negotiate immigration until the EU lifted sanctions on the country.
Screenshot of Russia Today report
The EU may approve more new sanctions against Belarus next week
According to Reuters on November 9, league diplomats recently said that the European Union will approve new sanctions on Belarus as early as next week, which will target about 30 individuals and entities, including Belarusian Foreign Minister Makyi and Belavia. The EU said Belarusian officials under the new round of sanctions had orchestrated the movement to organize migrants to Belarus and then send them to Belarus's border with the EU.
As a key step, the EU-27 ambassadors will formally agree on the 10th that Belarus's "planning" to transport migrants to the country's border with Poland constitutes a "hybrid war" that can be used as a legal basis for imposing sanctions.
The European Union and NATO have accused Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko of using the immigration issue to pressure the West to transport some people from the Middle East to Belarus and then to Belarus' borders with Poland and the Baltic states, telling them they could safely enter the EU territory in retaliation for previous EU sanctions.
The sanctions, if imposed, would be the fifth round of EU sanctions against Belarus, including measures such as travel bans and asset freezes. The new sanctions will expand the number of Belarusian citizens subjected to the EU travel ban and assets freeze to nearly 200, including Lukashenko and his son, as well as more than a dozen institutions and companies.
EU officials, including European Commission President von der Leyen, have also called for tougher measures against sanctions such as Belorussian Airlines, which is accused of transporting migrants to Belarus.
This article is an exclusive manuscript of the Observer Network and may not be reproduced without authorization.