Belarus has helped migrants well, says Lukashenko, but without his backing

Published on : 11/19/2021 – 5:46 pm

Migrants tried to enter Poland overnight from Belarus, Polish authorities said Friday (November 19th), a day after Minsk evacuated the main migrant camps on its border with the country.

“Attempts have been made to cross the border, but other methods have been adopted,” Polish Defense Minister Mariusz Blaszczak told private broadcaster Polsat, citing smaller groups.

‘Very possible’ Belarusian forces helped migrants

Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko told the BBC on Friday (November 19th) that it was “entirely possible” that the country’s security forces had helped migrants cross the border with Poland but denied having encouraged them to do so. .

“I think it is quite possible. We are Slavs. We have heart. Our troops know that the migrants are going to Germany,” Alexander Lukashenko said in an interview with the BBC.

“Maybe someone helped them. I won’t even look into that question,” he continued.

Poland accused Belarus of once again conveying hundreds of migrants to the border between the two countries and inciting them to attempt to cross it, a maneuver intended according to the EU to create a crisis situation in retaliation for the sanctions imposed after the crackdown on protests against the re-election of the Belarusian president in 2020.

Alexander Lukashenko, however, denied having attracted thousands of people to provoke a border crisis.

“I told them that I was not going to hold the migrants at the border and if they keep coming now, I still will not stop them, because they are not coming to my country, they are going to yours” , he told the BBC

Evacuation of the main makeshift camps

Belarusian authorities on Thursday evacuated the main makeshift camps near the border with Poland, where thousands of migrants were sheltering.

Repatriation flights, the first to leave Belarus since August, were also organized on Thursday to return hundreds of Iraqis to their country.

But the Polish border guard spokeswoman said Belarusian authorities brought hundreds of migrants back to the border as early as Thursday evening, forcing them to attempt to cross it in the dark.

“At first there were 100 people, but then the Belarusians brought more people back in trucks. Then there were 500,” said the spokeswoman, pointing to a ‘coerced’ attempt to cross the border.

The camps evacuated the day before – whose occupants were taken Thursday to a hangar a little further from the border where the press was able to go – however still seemed empty on Friday morning, according to a message from the Polish police on Twitter.

Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko discussed this issue on Friday with his Russian ally and counterpart Vladimir Putin. According to the Kremlin services, which reported on this telephone interview, the two men stressed the importance of cooperation between Belarus and the European Union.

While no Western leader has spoken to Alexander Lukashenko since his disputed re-election in August 2020, outgoing German Chancellor Angela Merkel has contacted him twice this week.

The European Commission – which does not intend to negotiate with the Belarusian president – on Thursday rejected a plan to end the crisis that Belarus says it has submitted to Angela Merkel, which would provide for the repatriation of 5,000 migrants by Minsk and the care of 2,000 more by the European Union.

The EU has accused Belarus for several months of having sent thousands of migrants from the Middle East to create a crisis situation on the border of Poland but also of Lithuania, in retaliation for the sanctions imposed after the repression of demonstrations against the re-election of Alexander Lukashenko.

Minsk denies any instrumentalisation of migrants.

With Reuters