Migrant crisis: Merkel spoke with Lukashenko, introduces new sanctions against Belarus, hundreds of people at the checkpoint
Community foreign ministers meeting in Brussels have received new sanctions against Belarus in recent weeks. Meanwhile, as the BBC correspondents report from the scene, several hundred migrants have gathered at the Kuzhnitsa checkpoint on the Belarusian-Polish border.
Community High Representative for Foreign Policy Josep Borrell questions companies that the fifth round of sanctions against Belarus will affect both individuals and individuals, its final details will be agreed in the coming days.
As Irish Foreign Minister Simon Coveney specified, the EU will terminate the aircraft lease contracts with the Belarusian state-owned company Belavia. “Either they will have to return these planes, or, as I understand it, they will go to court,” Reuters quoted him as saying. Coveney added that out of 30 aircraft located in the Belavia zone, 17 lease agreements with Irish companies are used.
On Monday, the US also announced its intention to impose new sanctions against Belarus in connection with the “inhuman encouragement” of the migration crisis. US State Department spokesman Ned Price told reporters that such measures “help to further lead the Lukashenka regime to account for its ongoing attacks on democracy, human rights and international norms.” He did not specify what kind of sanctions were in question.
Merkel spoke with Lukashenko
Meanwhile, on Monday evening, German Chancellor Angela Merkel held a telephone conversation with Alexander Lukashenko to discuss the migration crisis. This is the first direct contact between the President of Belarus and the leader of one of the Western countries after the presidential elections in 2020, the results of which are considered rigged in the West.
The official representative of the German leader Steffen Seibert confirmed that Merkel and Lukashenko “spoke about the difficult situation on the border between Belarus and the European Union, in particular, about the need to provide humanitarian aid to refugees and migrants there.”
Belarusian State Agency Belta informsthat Merkel and Lukashenko for about 50 minutes and discussed “first of all the situation”[ю] with a refugee at the Belarusian-Polish, Belarusian-Lithuanian and Belarusian-Latvian borders ”.
Confrontation at the border
The footage sent by our correspondents from the Belarusian-Polish border shows hundreds of people sitting on the road near the checkpoint between the Belarusian border guards and Polish posts. The territory of Poland is closed from them by a fence with barbed wire. These people came to the Kuzhnitsa checkpoint from a large camp, which migrants set up on the territory of Belarus in a forest near the border – several thousand people live there.
Polish border guards said they feared attempts by migrants to force their way across the border.
Steve Rosenberg, BBC correspondent
The situation was tense this morning.
Hundreds of people came along the road from the migrant camp and tried to force their way through some. Now they are sitting right next to the checkpoint on the Belarusian side of the border.
From what we have seen, the Belarusian forces did not try to stop them.
The migrants continue to sit, they are determined to fulfill their plans, that is, permission to enter the territory of Poland, that is, the tasks of unification.
This is a confrontation in which migrants remain on one side, and on the other side, behind the barbed wire, the Polish police are lined up.
A Polish helicopter hovered over them, a water cannon was installed. How this tense situation will be resolved is not yet clear.
What sanctions can the EU
The European Union and NATO accuse Belarus of a hybrid war, which is a deliberate refugee crisis in retaliation for sanctions and harsh criticism over human rights violations following the 2020 presidential elections.
Thousands of migrants have arrived in Belarus since summer, mainly from Iraq, Syria and Yemen, people go to the western borders of the country and pass through the territory of the EU countries: Poland, Lithuania and Latvia. Western politicians claim that the Belarusian authorities are deliberately luring migrants by promising them unhindered access to the European Union.
But the Belarusian authorities claim that the EU is to blame for the current situation.
On Monday, the EU foreign ministers, who are holding a meeting in Brussels, are also discussing the possibility of introducing new restrictive measures against the closest circle of President Alexander Lukashenko, as well as airlines and travel companies that transport migrants from the Middle East to Minsk.
Before the meeting, German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas said that the prohibitions on the delivery of migrants to Belarus could be banned from landing in the EU countries. He added that there are still many sanctions in the EU’s arsenal.
Under pressure from the EU, several airlines have already agreed to terminate the activities of some countries’ carriers to Minsk. The Iraqi authorities also announced that they are organizing nass, where citizens of this country can return home from Belarus. In addition, the United Arab Emirates has banned Afghans, Syrians, Yemenis and Iraqis from flying from the country’s airports to Minsk.
Borrell on Monday confirmed that the termination of flights with migrants is one of the solutions to the problem. “In terms of inflow [мигрантов] the situation is back under control, “he said.
Lukashenko: “We will defend ourselves”
Lukashenka said on Monday that the country’s authorities are trying to organize the return of migrants home. “We are ready, as we usually did, to put everyone on the planes, including Belavia, which will take them back home.
The President of Belarus also once again denied accusations of deliberately organizing the crisis and promised to toughly respond to the possible imposition of sanctions. “Organizing a migration flow through Belarus is more expensive for ourselves,” Lukashenka said. That’s it, we have nowhere to retreat. ”
Other events on Monday
- The Polish border service said that 118 attempts of migrants to cross the border with Belarus were registered on Sunday.
- Latvia announced that it sent 3 thousand. servicemen to the Belarusian border to conduct exercises.
- Russia has expressed its readiness to mediate in negotiations between the EU and the Belarusian authorities on the migration crisis.
- Press Secretary of the Russian President Dmitry Peskov rejected the assumptions voiced by the American authorities that the migration crisis was provoked to divert attention from Russian troops on the border with Ukraine. “We assess this statement as wrong. This is a wrong interpretation of the situation with the migration crisis on the Belarusian-Polish border, ”TASS quoted Peskov as saying. However, the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Lithuania said that Western countries do not exclude the possibility of a Russian attack on Ukraine at a time when the world is chained to what is happening on the borders of Poland with Lithuania.
- Due to the situation on the border, schools in the Polish city of Kuznica and the neighboring Novy Dvor will switch to online education.