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Polish soldiers at the border crossing
Photo: Policja Podlaska / via REUTERS
Because of the tense situation on the border with Belarus, Poland is considering, according to Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki, together with Lithuania and Latvia, to request a special NATO meeting. "We are discussing with Latvia, and especially with Lithuania, whether or not to activate Article 4 of NATO," Morawiecki told the PAP news agency. Article 4 provides for consultations if a member thinks that the integrity of their own territory, political independence or their own security is threatened.
For example, Turkey recently requested consultations under Article 4 when Turkish soldiers were killed in an air strike in northern Syria in early 2020.
Article 4 is not to be confused with Article 5. It stipulates that an attack against a NATO state is considered an attack against everyone.
It also provides that the NATO states provide each other with assistance.
Lukashenko's network extends as far as Turkey and Syria
The EU accuses Belarus of targeting people from crisis regions in the Middle East and Africa and leading them to the Polish border.
SPIEGEL research shows that the Belarusian dictator Alexander Lukashenko uses a system for this purpose that now extends to Turkey, Lebanon, Jordan, Syria and Dubai.
Polish government politicians and EU officials speak of a "hybrid attack", soldiers and police officers have sealed off the border.
Thousands of people have been waiting at the border crossing between Poland and Belarus and other parts of the border since Monday.
They have set up tents and are building small wooden sheds for themselves (read a report about the situation at the border fence here).
Poland systematically carries out pushbacks
The situation is becoming more precarious every day.
The area is one of the coldest regions in Poland, and temperatures are already dropping below freezing at night.
Several people have already died.
Again and again individual migrants break through the border line.
Apparently they are being told to do so by Belarusian border guards.
Most of them are then arrested by Polish security forces.
Dozens of migrants reported to SPIEGEL and other media that they were regularly pushed back to Belarus by Polish border guards.
According to their own statements, they do not have a chance of applying for asylum.
The Polish parliament recently allowed these so-called pushbacks, although they violate EU law and the Geneva Refugee Convention.
Accordingly, people on European soil have the right to a fair asylum procedure.
more on the subject
Refugees at the Belarusian-Polish border: "We are becoming more and more hopeless every day" By Christina Hebel and Steffen Lüdke
Dispute over Polish border fence: Europe's iron curtain by Steffen Lüdke, Maximilian Popp and Ralf Neukirch
Previously unknown details about the despot's network: This is how Lukashenko's perfidious people smuggling works
State of emergency on the Polish-Belarusian border: The refugees shout: »Germany!
Germany!
Germany! «By Christina Hebel, Muriel Kalisch, Steffen Lüdke and Maximilian Popp
Baerbock calls for humanitarian aid - Maas threatens airlines
The Green Party chairwoman Annalena Baerbock called on the Polish government on Sunday to grant aid organizations access to the border area.
"I appeal to the Polish government to make this possible and to accept the EU's offers of support - also with regard to joint border protection," she wrote on Twitter.
The Polish government has set up a restricted zone on the border.
Journalists and refugee workers are not allowed to enter.
The right-wing Polish government also refuses to help the European border protection agency Frontex, which was created for precisely such cases.
Foreign Minister Heiko Maas (SPD) threatened airlines on Twitter with the withdrawal of overflight and landing rights if they took part in “Lukashenko's smuggling business”.
Most recently, the Turkish civil aviation authority banned Iraqis, Syrians and Yemenis from traveling from Turkey to Minsk.
The Syrian airline Cham Wings stopped the connection to Minsk.
slü / dpa
