431 migrants from Iraq leave Belarus for repatriation / Article

431 migrants from Iraq left Belarus on a repatriation flightArtyom Konohov00:00 / 00:00

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Russian and Belarusian media footage filmed today at Minsk airport showed migrants waiting in line to check in for a repatriation flight.

Meanwhile, the press secretary of the authoritarian leader of Belarus, Alexander Lukashenko, said that in talks with German Chancellor Angela Merkel, he had offered to solve the migrant crisis by establishing a humanitarian corridor to Germany.

“The mechanism proposed by the President in his first talks with Angela Merkel was as follows: The European Union will set up a humanitarian corridor for the 2,000 refugees in the camp on the Belarusian-Polish border. wants, “said Lukashenko’s spokeswoman Natalia Eismonte.

However, the President of Poland, Andrzej Duda, has emphasized that Warsaw will not recognize any agreement if it is adopted behind Poland.

According to Minsk, there are currently a total of about seven thousand migrants in Belarus.

Today, with the first repatriation flight of its kind since August, only a few hundred went back, and other flights are not planned yet.

Although the situation on the Polish-Belarusian border has calmed down somewhat, attempts to cross the fence illegally continue. According to the Polish Border Guard, a group of about 500 people tried to cross the border by force at night. The Belarusian authorities may have helped them by damaging the fence in the past.

In addition, this time an attempt was made to distract the Polish border guards. In a statement issued by the Polish Ministry of Defense, Belarusian authorities have forced migrants to stone Polish border guards. Meanwhile, several hundred meters away, an attempt was made to cross the fence. The Polish Ministry of Defense believes that the operation has been led by Belarusian forces.

About 200 people who managed to cross the fence were later detained.

Poland is reportedly threatening to shut down rail traffic in Kuznets if the situation with migrants is not normalized by the end of this week.

A Polish volunteer organization, meanwhile, has reported that a Syrian family found wandering in the woods has died at the age of one.

Ambiguous conversations

Merkel has had two phone calls with Lukashenko this week. They are ambiguous because so far Western countries have refused any contact with Lukashenko, saying he is an illegitimate president.

Lithuanian Foreign Minister Gabriel Landsberg claims that Lukashenko’s blackmail may have worked. The Minister announced that one of the European Union countries is now trying to get the Belarusian airline “Belavia” removed from the new sanctions package. Landsberg did not make it clear which European country was trying to do so, but in the light of Merkel’s talks with Lukashenko, suspicions fell on Germany. According to the Lithuanian Foreign Minister, the crackdown on Belavia is the most important element of the latest European sanctions.

Do not let journalists

Journalists are denied access to border areas and the border itself. Latvian Television confirmed on Wednesday that the Polish border guard takes this ban very seriously. Probably due to a misunderstanding, we entered LTV in Kuznica, which is already a so-called restricted area, where the filming team was stopped by the border guard and detained for two hours.

While waiting for the documents to be checked, it was possible to observe the area at the very moment when the change of forces took place, because at the beginning a large number of police left the border crossing point, then at the border guard car and finally at armored and military transport. Dozens of vehicles, including water jets, entered the border crossing point. It was also possible to watch people change at the fence.

Latvian Television journalist Anna Ūdre emphasized in “Panorama” that it is important to see the border with one’s own eyes, so that the events on the Belarusian side are covered by journalists like the regime, while the Polish side has to rely only on official information, which is not correct.

Journalists regularly remind the Polish authorities of the need to allow the media to document the border.

CONTEXT:

On November 8, a large group of migrants gathered at the Belarusian border with Poland, trying to enter the territory of the European Union, but Poland refuses to allow these people because they believe that they are not refugees, but “tourists” who have come to Belarus voluntarily.

The bloc ‘s foreign ministers agreed politically on Monday new sanctions and now diplomats need to make an exact list on which there must be consensus.

Also The G7 issued a statement on Thursday, urging Belarus to immediately stop using migrants to achieve its political goals. The Kremlin, for its part, called on Europe to stop blaming Russia for all the problems.

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