EU accuses Belarus of ‘gangster’ methods as migrants shiver at Polish border

• Migrants are stuck on the Polish-Belarusian border
• EU states accuse Belarus of having fueled the migrant crisis
• EU Commission announces further sanctions against Minsk. at
• Putin discusses the crisis with Lukashenko
• Russia’s Lavrov proposes EU financial aid for Minsk. before

SOKOLKA, Poland, Nov. 9 (Reuters) – Hundreds of migrants crowded around campfires near the Belarusian-Polish border on Tuesday where barbed wire fences and Polish border guards blocked their entry into the European Union.

The EU promised more sanctions against Belarus and accused President Alexander Lukashenko of using “gangster-style” tactics during the month-long break at the border, in which at least seven migrants died.

Poland and other EU Member States accuse Belarus of encouraging migrants from the Middle East, Afghanistan and Africa to illegally cross the border into the EU in order to avenge the sanctions imposed on Minsk for human rights violations.

“The Belarusian regime is attacking the Polish border, the EU, in an unprecedented manner,” said Polish President Andrzej Duda at a press conference in Warsaw.

“We currently have a camp of migrants who are being blocked by the Belarusian side. There are around 1,000 people there, mostly young men. These are aggressive actions that we have to fend off in order to fulfill our obligations as a member of the European Union.”

Reuters reporters saw Polish border officials arrest a group of migrants in a forest on the Polish side of the border on Tuesday afternoon. Paramedics were seen wrapping blankets around some of the migrants. A woman couldn’t walk.

Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiekci, who previously visited Polish troops stationed at the border, said the migrants were being used by Belarus as part of a “new type of war in which people are used as human shields”.

Lukashenko’s government, which is supported by Russia, denies having manipulated the migration crisis and holds Europe and the US responsible for the plight of people stranded on the border.

She called the Polish Defense Attache on Tuesday to protest allegedly unfounded allegations about the involvement of Belarusian military personnel in the crisis.

‘BRIBERY’

Lukashenko and Russian President Vladimir Putin discussed the situation over the phone and expressed concern about the build-up of Polish troops on the border, the Belarusian state news agency Belta reported on Tuesday.

“To wage war with these unfortunate people on the Polish-Belarusian border and to advance tank columns – it is clear that this is either an exercise or blackmail,” Lukashenko said in television commentaries.

“We’ll be able to withstand that,” he added.

Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov proposed that the EU provide financial aid to Belarus to stop the flow of migrants, referring to an earlier agreement with Turkey. Continue reading

Migrants gather near a barbed wire fence to cross the border with Poland in the Grodno region, Belarus, November 8, 2021. Leonid Scheglov / BelTA / Handout via REUTERS

Continue reading

According to the EU Commission, around 2,000 migrants have now gathered at the border.

“This is part of the inhuman and genuinely gangster-like approach of the Lukashenko regime, that it lies to people, abuses people … said a spokesman for the commission.

EU governments have partially suspended an agreement on visa facilitation for Belarusian officials. Continue reading

The UN refugee agency UNHCR called for an end to the use of vulnerable people as political pawns.

“DANGEROUS EVENTS”

A spokesman for the Polish Special Services, Stanislaw Zaryn, said Belarusian security forces “fire empty shots in the air simulating dangerous events” while also providing migrants with tools to help them destroy the border fence.

On Monday, some migrants tried to tear down the border fence with spades and other equipment.

Polish border guards registered 309 illegal attempts to breach the border on Monday and arrested 17 people, mostly Iraqis.

Lithuania also reported a surge in attempted crossings by migrants and followed in Poland’s footsteps by declaring a state of emergency on its border on Tuesday.

The move allows border guards to use “mental coercion” and “proportional physical force” to stop the migrants.

The crisis erupted after Western powers imposed sanctions on Belarus for violent crackdown on mass street protests sparked by Lukashenko’s victory in the 2020 presidential election.

His opponents say the vote was rigged, which he denies.

Humanitarian groups accuse Poland of violating international asylum law by forcing migrants back to Belarus instead of accepting their protection requests. Poland considers its actions to be legal.

A poll by IBRiS for the Polish daily Rzeczpospolita this week showed that 55% of Poles believe that migrants who have illegally crossed the border should be pushed back.

Additional reporting by Pawel Florkiewicz in Warsaw, Matthias Williams in Kiev, Sabine Siebold in Berlin, Robin Emmott in Brussels, Andrius Sytas in Kapciamiestis, Lithuania, Polina Devitt and Mark Trevelyan in Moscow; Writing by Matthias Wiliams Editing by Gareth Jones

Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/hundreds-migrants-remain-poland-belarus-border-temperatures-drop-2021-11-09/