Migrants from the Polish-Belarusian border are a risk for Slovakia. Are we preparing it?
Migrants from Asia who brought them to the Belarusian border are trying to find their way to the countries of the European Union at all costs. In makeshift conditions, they starve and freeze and there is no going back. On the one hand, the Belarusians are pushing them to Poland and at the same time they are preparing another repatriation flight to Iraq or Syria. The first plane with more than 431 Iraqi migrants flew from Minsk to Baghdad on November 18, the second with 118 people left only yesterday (November 2).
Despite the fence, which requires Poles to carry out the required border crossing, they will find new routes. According to Reuters, the Polish border guard on Monday (November 22) reported as many as 174 more attempts to cross the border near the village of Bialowieza.
Humanitarian organizations seeking to secure at least food, clothing and medicine for helpless people have already confirmed 13 dead migrants who have died as a result of catastrophic conditions at the border. Temperatures have dropped below zero and snow has fallen in the eastern part of Poland. Some of the migrants were placed in a Belarusian logistics center with hundreds of people on the ground.
Due to the extraordinary situation on the Polish-Belarusian border, a meeting will be held in Budapest in front of the V4 (Visegrad Four) countries on Tuesday (November 23). It took place at the request of Polish Prime Minister Meteusz Morawiecke.
The behavior of the Belarusian regime is unacceptable, Eduard said after the government meeting Heger. He stressed that Slovakia supports any sanctions against Belarus.
“Airlines involved in human trafficking should be sanctioned as soon as possible,” he said. Heger, who added that this situation affects the entire region – Lithuania, Latvia and the Prime Minister of the V4 also paid close attention to the situation in Poland.
Slovakia on call?
Slovakia is located about 80 kilometers from the aforementioned Polish-Belarusian border. Many Slovaks have garnered attention when they began appearing on social networks showing new routes for migrants who want to enter the EU via Ukraine and Slovakia. According to the Polish media, they are written in Arabic.
As many as five thousand migrants are said to be moving west through Slovakia. We found out where to go
Our Ukrainian neighbors at the border have already detained their first refugees. The Ukrainian border guard is therefore on the lookout. They fear that their border could become a new focus of the migration crisis. Kiev even talks about building a wall with neighbors. You can find more in the article: Migrants in Eastern Europe have found new routes. They have already reached Ukraine.
As the Minister of Labor, Social Affairs and Family, Milan Krajniak, indicated in the program V politika on TA3 on Sunday (November 21), the Council of the Slovak Republic, which discussed it two weeks ago, “We know very well about the risks that arise and we are preparing for them,” stated.
We also asked the Minister of the Interior, Roman Mikulec, about the meeting of the Security Council of the Slovak Republic. However, he did not comment specifically, he only stated that Slovakia is ready for a possible wave of migrants.
“Belarus is abusing the migration crisis to make life uncomfortable for European countries. We are very active in communicating with these countries. It is very important for Slovakia to have a protected Schengen border for which we are responsible, and we are complying with that. We are also developing other activities in this area, how to further improve border protection in the future, “the minister added for TVNOVINY.sk.
State of emergency in Poland
Since the beginning of this year, the Polish Border Guard has recorded more than 34,000 attempts to cross the Polish-Belarusian border illegally, 6,000 of them since the beginning of the month. Since 2 September, a state of emergency has been in force in the areas of Poland bordering Belarus.
Warsaw responded to the influx of migrants by sending thousands of troops to the border area, establishing a state of emergency, as well as quickly building a barbed wire fence. She also announced that she wanted to start building a wall at the border in December, and his council completed it in the first half of the year.