What is happening in Belarus? The border migrant crisis, explained

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Charities said people stranded in the border area battled the frost and lacked food and medical treatment, with reports of beatings and grueling conditions. Polish police said on Monday that around 3,500 people had gathered near the Kuznica crossing point. Belarusian border officials told CNN on Friday that 200 children and 600 women were among some 2,000 people massed near the border post. Some of them are just babies or toddlers.

A Syrian asylum seeker, who recently arrived in Poland after his third attempt to cross the border from Belarus, told CNN that upon arriving at the border, guards caught him and three other people from his group. He was severely beaten and suffered facial injuries, a broken nose and bruised ribs.

Polish authorities said seven migrants were found dead on the Polish side of the border, with reports of other deaths in Belarus.

Makeshift camps where migrants were staying at the Bruzgi-Kuźnica crossing point were finally cleared by Belarusian authorities on Thursday, with migrants being moved to a nearby warehouse which has been converted into an ad hoc processing center.

Although the shelter has offered respite from sub-zero temperatures and harsh living conditions in the short term, Belarus has yet to define what awaits the migrants who have flown to Minsk in the hope of getting away from it all. make it to Europe and have a better life. Many now fear that their new home is just the first step in the eviction process.

Since the beginning of November, thousands of border crossing attempts have been recorded, according to the Polish authorities.

A spokesman for the Polish border guards told CNN on Monday that there had been “massive border crossing attempts” in the Kuznica area by a group of people over the weekend and that the situation was “very tense and very dangerous”.

Last week, representatives of the Polish border guards told CNN that some of the migrants had been pushed towards the barriers by Belarusian services.

Speaking on Monday, Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko said Belarus was doing everything to prevent people from piling up at the border.

The Polish authorities detained a small number of people, allowing only a small number of people the opportunity to seek asylum in Poland. Others were immediately returned to Belarus.

Access to the border area has been strictly restricted. Journalists and aid workers have been prevented from entering the region by an exclusion zone.

Polish government steps up nationalist rhetoric

Polish President Andrzej Duda visited the border last Thursday in solidarity with the army, police and border guards. Earlier today, Duda addressed the thousands of Poles who marched through Warsaw to celebrate Independence Day.

In a speech with nationalist references in support of the government’s strict policy of keeping the border with Belarus closed to migrants, he said: “We have always been, we are and we will be part of a Europe founded on Christian values. , which are also the foundations of our tradition and our culture. “

“The time has come when you must defend your homeland. But we must guard its borders more than before,” said Duda, adding: “It must be done with dedication, with sleepless nights, in the cold, in misery. , in a very thankless situation to which we were forced by the hybrid actions of the Belarusian regime against Poland and against the European Union. “

Aid groups accuse the ruling party in Poland of violating international asylum rights by pushing people back to Belarus instead of accepting their requests for protection. Under article 14 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, everyone has the right to seek and enjoy asylum from persecution in other countries. Poland says its actions are legal.

A wider political crisis is brewing

Lukashenko was accused of fabricating the migrant crisis at the border by the prime ministers of neighboring countries Poland, Latvia and Lithuania, which led Poland to pass a bill in October for the construction of ‘a wall along its border with Belarus. NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg also singled out Belarus, saying last week that “Belarus using migrants as a hybrid tactic is unacceptable”.

Lukashenko’s government has repeatedly denied such claims, instead blaming the West for crossings and the treatment of migrants.

Russia, Belarus’ biggest (and most important) political and economic partner, defended Minsk’s handling of the issue and denied any involvement in the crisis.

Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Saturday that Russia had “absolutely nothing to do with” the border crisis. Russia underscored its support for the Lukashenko regime by conducting joint military exercises in Belarusian airspace last week.

Two Russian long-range Tupolev Tu-22M3 supersonic bombers on Wednesday practiced “ground checkpoint interaction problems” with the armed forces of the two countries, Russia’s defense ministry said. On Thursday, they made these flights over Belarusian airspace for the second time.

The two countries then organized joint parachute exercises near the Polish border on Friday.

Meanwhile, Ukraine is also strengthening security around the border with Belarus. On Thursday, he announced that he would organize military exercises with some 8,500 soldiers and 15 helicopters in an area close to its borders with Poland and Belarus to counter a possible migrant crisis.

Speaking to “Axios on HBO” last week, Stoltenberg said the alliance was closely monitoring “unusual” Russian troop movements near the Ukrainian border and would be prepared to deal with what could happen.

After talks in Brussels with the Ukrainian Foreign Minister, Stoltenberg said on Monday: “We call again on Russia to defuse the escalation, reduce tensions and be transparent about its military activities in Ukraine and in its surroundings “. Stoltenberg pledged NATO “support” to Ukraine, which is not a NATO member.

The Polish-Belarusian border crisis continues to test a fragile political order, with US claims about Russia’s military build-up heightening concerns about the potential for a larger geopolitical crisis.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said last Wednesday that the United States was “concerned about reports of unusual Russian military activity” and raised the possibility that Russia “is trying to rehash” its invasion of the United States. Ukraine in 2014.

Russia last Friday said any claim it might invade Ukraine was “an empty and unfounded escalation of tensions.”

Belarus facing new sanctions

EU leaders accused Belarus of fabricating the EU border migrant crisis in retaliation for sanctions for human rights violations, a claim the Belarusian government has repeatedly denied.

In response to the escalation, the United States and the European Union announced new sanctions against Belarus last week. On Monday, EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said the bloc would extend sanctions further.

“Today we will approve a new package of sanctions against Belarusians responsible for what is happening … and we will launch a framework to implement further sanctions against other people, airlines, travel agencies and all those involved in this illegal migrant case pushed to our borders, “he said.

The White House National Security Council said last week that the United States was preparing “follow-up sanctions” designed to hold Belarusian leaders accountable for “ongoing attacks on democracy, human rights and human rights. international standards “. The spokesperson did not say when the new sanctions would come into effect.

“We are deeply concerned by the inhumane actions of the Lukashenka regime and strongly condemn their inhuman exploitation and coercion of vulnerable people,” said the spokesperson.

This is the second round of sanctions announced by the United States in recent months. In August, the White House announced an executive decree targeting members of the Belarusian regime implicated in the repression of human rights and democracy.

The decree was issued on the first anniversary of Belarus’ elections, which sparked widespread protests across the country and which the United States – and much of the international community – has declared to be fraudulent.

CNN’s Ivana Kottasová, Nadine Schmidt, Katharina Krebs, Lauren Said-Moorhouse, Antonia Mortensen and Magda Chodownik and Anna Chernova contributed reporting.

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