Poland, Lithuania and Latvia – the three states of the European Union bordering Belarus – accuse Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko of trying to illegally reach migrants from Iraq, Afghanistan, Syria and other countries. According to these EU countries, it is doing so in the act of the “hybrid war” that Minsk is waging against their countries in revenge for EU sanctions.
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While thousands of migrants have been driven back to Belarus or relocated to closed immigration centers, attention has been focused on a group of about 30 people who have been camping on the Polish-Belarusian border for weeks.
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The International Organization for Migration in Geneva has stated that stranded migrants face “extremely harsh conditions, with limited access to drinking water and food, medical care, sanitation and shelter”.
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“Prolonging this unacceptable situation poses a serious threat to the lives and health of migrants,” the IOM said.
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The group’s fate has also raised concerns in Poland, where critics have accused the government of reacting inhumanely. The government deployed troops on the border and decided to build a fence there. The cabinet refused to let a stranded group of migrants apply for asylum.
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A state of emergency applies at the border
Last Thursday, at the request of the government, the Polish president declared a state of emergency at the border. According to TVN 24, the Sejm, which is the lower house of the Polish parliament, rejected proposals by the minority opposition to overturn the president’s decision. On the contrary, MEPs approved them in the vote. The state of emergency, which suspends constitutional freedoms, is valid for 30 days in 183 border municipalities.
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Prime Minister Morawiecki has accused opposition politicians protesting against the government’s actions in front of the cameras according to a script written in Minsk and Moscow. According to the prime minister, he should remove the state of emergency. The Prime Minister does not expect a drop in tension at the border, as the Russian-Belarusian military exercise West 2021 will begin soon.
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“We haven’t had such a tense situation in 30 years,” he said. He appealed to the opposition to act responsibly and not encourage provocation.
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The Polish Ombudsman stated that he saw no legal reason to question the state of emergency in the border zone. However, according to TVN 24, he objected to the fact that the state of emergency also limited journalists who had to leave the border, as well as access to public information. The opposition claims that the state of emergency was declared only so that only the ruling Law and Justice Party (PiS) could monitor the situation.
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