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According to Polish authorities, there are currently between 3,000 and 4,000 migrants in the border area
Photo: LEONID SHCHEGLOV / AFP
In view of the increasing numbers of migrants at Poland's external EU border, Brussels is working flat out on new sanctions instruments against airlines and other parties involved in illegal smuggling activities. According to diplomats, the permanent representatives of the governments of the EU countries want to initiate an expansion of the current sanctions regime this Wednesday. It could already be officially decided at the meeting of EU foreign ministers next Monday.
The move should make it possible, among other things, to force companies based in the EU to cease all business relationships with the Belarusian airline Belavia with immediate effect. One of the consequences of this would be that aircraft leasing companies would have to reclaim aircraft lent to the airline. In addition, tour operators and airlines from third countries could also be targeted.
The EU's hope is that not so many people from poor or conflict-ridden countries will come to Belarus.
The leadership in the country is accused of deliberately bringing migrants into the country in order to then bring them to the border with Poland for onward travel to the EU.
The assumption is that the ruler Alexander Lukashenko wants to avenge himself for the sanctions that the EU has imposed because of the repression of civil society and the democratic opposition.
Border crossing closed
According to the Polish authorities, there are currently between 3,000 and 4,000 migrants on the border between Belarus and Poland.
Because of the tense situation, Warsaw closed a border crossing to its eastern neighbor on Tuesday.
On Monday, larger groups of migrants tried in vain to break through the fence.
Belarusian state media released photos and videos of people gathered around campfires and children lying in sleeping bags on the ground in the forest area.
Now, according to the Polish Ministry of Defense, a "large group" of Belarusian security forces is to march towards the border.
As on the previous day, the Belarusian state agency Belta reports alleged shots from the Polish side.
There have already been several migrant deaths in the border region.
The EU states Poland and Lithuania have reported thousands of border crossings in the past few months.
Germany is considered a main destination for refugees (read more here).
In view of the worsening situation on the EU's external border with Belarus, Lithuania wants to impose a state of emergency in the border region for one month.
The government of the Baltic EU country submitted a resolution to the parliament in Vilnius for approval on Tuesday.
The cabinet is following a proposal by Interior Minister Agne Bilotaite.
The Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki, who visited the border in the morning together with his Defense Minister, sees the EU in danger due to the influx of thousands of migrants on the Polish border with Belarus. "Today the stability and security of the entire EU is at stake," he wrote on Twitter. "The sealing off of the Polish border is our national interest," explained Morawiecki. But "this hybrid attack by Lukashenko's regime is directed against all of us." Poland will not be intimidated and will "defend peace in Europe together with our partners from NATO and the EU".
Polish President Andrzej Duda accused Belarus on Tuesday that the migrants at the border were being blocked by the Belarusian side so that they could not leave the area.
The Belarusian regime is attacking the border of Poland and the EU in an "unprecedented way" by de facto inviting migrants into the country and pushing them to the Polish-Belarusian border, Duda said.
Belarus has meanwhile warned Poland against provocations.
"We would like to warn the Polish side in advance against using any provocations directed against the Republic of Belarus to justify possible illegal military actions against disadvantaged unarmed people (...)," said a statement by the Foreign Ministry in Minsk on Tuesday .
EU imposes sanctions
In response to the situation on the EU's eastern border, the European Union is partially suspending an agreement on visa facilitation with Belarus.
"This decision is a response to the ongoing hybrid attack by the Belarusian regime," said a statement on Tuesday.
The move was proposed at the end of September by the EU Commission in the conflict over allegedly controlled migration via Belarus.
According to the information, it applies to "officials of the Belarusian regime".
In the future, it will be more time-consuming and expensive for them to get a visa to enter the EU.
Ordinary Belarusian citizens are not affected by the decision.
It will now be published in the Official Journal of the EU and will come into force two days later.
»We strongly condemn the ongoing instrumentalisation of migration by the Belarusian regime and firmly reject it.
It is unacceptable that Belarus is playing with people's lives for political purposes, «said Slovenian Interior Minister Ales Hojs
on behalf of the current EU Presidency.
"Nasty Political Method"
The conflict sparked a debate in Berlin about how to properly deal with this new migration crisis. A humanitarian solution must be found in the EU "for those who are there" - "these people must be helped," said the SPD General Secretary Lars Klingbeil on Tuesday of the "Bild". The states of the European Union would have to work together to »ensure that no more new refugees arrive,« demanded the designated SPD chairman. "We also have to clearly communicate in the countries where they come from that they have no chance of coming to Germany this way."
“It's a very nasty political method that definitely needs to be stopped.
We call this a hybrid threat, where people are used to destabilize the EU and especially Germany - this must not prevail in the world! ”Said Federal Interior Minister Horst Seehofer (CSU), as his spokesman wrote on Twitter.
In an application by the CDU / CSU, which is being discussed in the Bundestag this Thursday, it says that the German government should advocate landing bans and other sanctions against airlines that "transport migrants due to Belarus' abusively granted visa exemption" .
In addition, it should be taken into account that Belarus, as a »Russian client state«, does not make decisions such as the state-orchestrated smuggling of migrants into the EU alone.
If other measures to curb migration from Belarus to Germany are ineffective or not sufficient, the Federal Government should take precautions so that as a last resort, temporary border controls can be introduced at the German-Polish border.
svs / dpa
