Representatives of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees and the World Health Organization have arrived in Belarus to discuss the solution to the migration crisis. A Belarusian travel company that previously helped migrants apply for visas at Minsk airport is now offering a special flight to Syria and Iraq for those looking to return home.
Belarus has changed tactics
What is happening in Belarus is still worrying the leaders of neighboring countries. On Sunday, the Prime Minister of Poland Mateusz Moravecki is expected to visit Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia to discuss the difficult geopolitical situation. According to Polish government spokesman Peter Miller, all countries need to carefully analyze and learn from Russia’s actions in Georgia, Crimea and eastern Ukraine.
In addition, Russia has recently become increasingly active in using natural gas as a tool for blackmail, and therefore a proper response to such challenges also requires solidarity between the European Union and European countries.
Although tensions on the Belarusian-Polish border have eased significantly in recent days, problems have not disappeared and attempts are still being made to cross the border illegally. However, Belarusian officials emphasize that the border guards of the neighboring countries of Poland, Lithuania and Latvia continue to force migrants to return to Belarus, even though they do not want to.
Belarus has changed its tactics regarding the flow of migrants, dividing it into smaller groups and diverting it to different places on the border, Polish Defense Minister Marjush Blaschak said on Saturday. Almost 200 attempts to cross the Polish-Belarusian border illegally have been registered in the past day.
According to the Polish border guards, people in these migrant groups have behaved aggressively, thrown stones, blew up firecrackers and used tear gas. Polish border guards have reported groups of migrants, mostly tens of people, but in one case they also encountered a group of around 200 people.
More questions than answers
On Saturday, representatives of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees visited the logistics center near the border, to which most of the migrants were transferred, also delivered humanitarian aid – 500 thermal blankets. Representatives of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees have indicated that they will continue to work with the leaders of various countries to ensure that the human rights and security of migrants are respected.
The World Health Organization mission also arrived in Belarus on Saturday to discuss with the Belarusian Ministry of Health and other stakeholders how to resolve the current situation and meet the demands of migrants.
According to the mission, the situation is still complicated and changing. At the same time, it is emphasized that the situation on the Polish-Belarusian border must also be seen in the context of the Covid-19 pandemic. The mission is expected to remain in Belarus for another four days.
Meanwhile, the journalist of the Belarusian edition of Nash Niva managed to contact and ask several questions related to the migration crisis to the head of the Belarusian Border Guard Service Igor Pechenny.
For example, why were migrants not initially directed to an official border crossing point? Have people punished Polish border guards with cobblestones been punished? Why were those who were in the border area without permission not punished, and so on.
Pechen replied that, in general, the law has been followed, many answers can be found in the media, journalists do not have a full understanding of what is happening, so their opinion is allowed, but this is not a basis for further discussion. As journalists emphasize, such an answer raises even more questions than answers.
Ukraine could ban the import of Belarusian products
It also became known over the weekend that the Belarusian travel company Dream Job has announced that a special flight will be organized on November 28 for migrants wishing to return to Syria and Iraq. The flight will be free for the company’s customers, but other visitors who want to return to Damascus will have to pay $ 400. Dream Job is one of the companies that helped foreign citizens obtain visas in Minsk.
Deputies of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine are expected to discuss a total ban on imports of Belarusian products soon. Such an embargo bill was registered on Friday, but parliamentary deliberations do not yet guarantee approval of the law.
Ukraine is still the largest market for oil products produced in Belarus, and about 45 percent of all oil products are sold to the country. In addition, trade in oil products to Ukraine has even increased in the first eight months of this year, despite the imposition of US sanctions on a number of Belarusian refineries.
CONTEXT:
In the summer of 2021 the number of migrants increased significantly, which is trying to enter the territory of Latvia, Lithuania and Poland illegally from Belarus. Most migrants are arrived from Iraq.
Officials in the Baltic States and Poland pointed out that the Belarusian authorities deliberately do not obstruct the crossing of the borderto punish these countries for supporting the Belarusian opposition and sanctions against Alexander Lukashenko’s regime.
The European Union will do so described as the deployment of hybrid warfare and promises to help strengthen the EU’s external border.
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.
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