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Retaliation for EU sanctions: Belarus is apparently sending illegal migrants to Europe

2021-06-17T22:18:50.373Z


Belarus apparently wants to increase the pressure on Europe with migrants: According to a media report, Iraqis and Syrians are being passed on in a targeted manner. Lithuania's foreign minister speaks of a »weapon« against his country and the EU.


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Lithuanian border guard on the border with Belarus

Photo: Mindaugas Kulbis / AP

Belarus is evidently directing illegal migrants from Iraq and Syria to the European Union via Lithuania.

The autocratic system under ruler Alexander Lukashenko used the refugees "as a weapon" to put the EU under pressure, Lithuania's Foreign Minister Gabrielius Landsbergis told the Financial Times.

It is a retaliation for EU sanctions.

Belarus is carrying out "hybrid attacks against Europe" by offering migrants transport to the Lithuanian border through a state tourism agency.

Lithuania had recently reported repeatedly that groups of Iraqis from Belarus had crossed the border.

According to the report, Lithuania arrested almost twice as many migrants at the Belarusian border with the EU this year than in the three previous years combined.

Lithuania held 387 migrants there until mid-June, Landsbergis said in the Financial Times.

In the entire past year there were 74.

The aim of the Belarusian campaign is to "test Lithuania, test Europe".

A weapon "aimed directly at Lithuania"

The targeted forwarding of refugees is a »weapon« aimed directly at Lithuania, according to the Foreign Minister.

The reason is "easy to guess": "We speak straight ahead and offer protection to the leaders of the (Belarusian) opposition".

Among other things, the government critic Roman Protassewitsch lived in exile in Lithuania.

He was arrested in late May while forced landing on a flight from Athens to Vilnius in Belarus.

Lukashenko had already threatened the EU in May to use border procedures as leverage.

"We stop drugs and migrants - now you will have to take and catch them yourself," the dictator had announced in the state parliament, according to the report.

Landsbergis said the Belarusian state tourism agency Tsentrkurort is also using Boeing 777 aircraft to fly migrants to Lithuania.

There are currently 1000 Iraqis and Syrians in Minsk.

According to the newspaper, neither the Belarusian Foreign Ministry nor the Tsentrkurort agency commented on the allegations.

Lukashenko has ruled for 27 years

Relations between Belarus and the EU deteriorated significantly in the summer of 2020 after Lukashenko declared himself president again in August.

He has ruled the country for 27 years now.

The opposition accuses him of electoral fraud.

In subsequent nationwide protests and strikes, police used violence against demonstrators.

Numerous members of the opposition were arrested, abducted or fled.

At the time, the EU initiated sanctions against people who were involved in election fraud or violence against demonstrators.

The EU also imposed penalties against the ruler Lukashenko himself.

Irishman

Source: spiegel

All news articles on 2021-06-17

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