The situation on the border between Poland and Belarus is extremely tense.
Now Lukashenko's troops are said to have torn down fences.
The news ticker.
In the UN Security Council, European countries, together with the USA, condemn the government's actions in Minsk
(see update from November 12, 10:40 a.m.).
Apparently Lukashenko ordered help for children in the border area with Poland.
But he is criticized for having brought the migrants into this situation in the first place
(see update from November 13th, 1:15 p.m.)
.
Belarusian soldiers are now likely to have torn down a border fence so that the migrants can move on to Poland
(see update from November 13th, 8:10 pm)
.
This news ticker is continuously updated.
Update from November 13th, 8:10 p.m.:
In the Belarusian-Polish border area, the next escalation level should now have been reached. According to a report by the
Tagesschau
, Belarusian soldiers are said to have torn down a border fence to allow migrants to enter the EU. At least that is what the Polish border troops claimed. The Belarusians also blinded them with laser beams "and provided the foreigners with tear gas that was used against the Polish services," border guards told the
Tagesschau
. Shortly before, a dead Syrian was found in the forest on the border with Belarus. The cause of death is still unknown.
Meanwhile, according to the dpa, Russian President Vladimir Putin again spoke out in favor of a direct dialogue between Germany and Belarus.
Chancellor Merkel should speak to Lukashenko directly.
Putin said on state television that he had heard from talks with Lukashenko and Merkel that the two were open to joint consultations.
On the other hand, Putin believes the threat by the Belarusian ruler to the EU to turn off the gas is completely wrong.
“He can do that.
But that doesn't lead to anything good, and of course I'll talk to him about the subject, ”the president said on Russian television, according to dpa.
+
For the people in the Belarusian-Polish border area, the situation seems to be getting worse.
© Leonid Shcheglov / dpa
At the same time, Putin has denied any guilt on the part of Russia.
On the other hand, he accused the Polish border guards of “inhumane action”, according to the dpa.
Accordingly, the troops beat the migrants and would turn on sirens and lights at night where there were children and heavily pregnant women.
These allegations have not yet been confirmed.
Belarus: Security forces allegedly shoot in the air - Lukashenko meanwhile orders help for children
Update from November 13th, 1:15 p.m.:
The authoritarian Belarusian ruler Alexander Lukashenko has ordered humanitarian aid, especially for the children of migrants stranded in the border area with Poland. The Belarusian state news agency Belta reported on Saturday that food tents should be set up. Lukashenko, however, is criticized for having brought people into this miserable situation in the first place. The EU accuses him of deliberately smuggling in migrants from crisis areas and then pushing them towards the EU's external border.
The opposition Belarusian Telegram channel
Nexta
posted videos
allegedly showing
Belarusian security forces shooting in the air to intimidate migrants.
There were also children among the people, "about whom the state propagandists allegedly worry so much," it said.
Because independent journalists are not allowed into the border area, such information cannot be verified at the moment.
With temperatures around freezing point, thousands of migrants have been waiting in makeshift camps in the forest for several days.
According to Belarusian sources, several dozen people gathered at the closed Kuznica border crossing on Saturday morning and shouted “Germany, Germany!”.
Many hope for a life in the Federal Republic.
Update from November 12th, 3:44 p.m
.: The three federal states on the border with Poland are pressing for stronger action against unauthorized entries via Belarus and Poland to Germany.
Brandenburg's Interior Minister Michael Stübgen (CDU) and his colleagues from Saxony and Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania want to call for clear measures against Belarus at the Interior Ministers' Conference in Stuttgart at the beginning of December, ministry circles in Potsdam said.
In addition, an orderly reception of asylum seekers is necessary.
Countries that refuse to take back migrants should be threatened with consequences in terms of development aid.
Belarus crisis: “Pro Asyl” calls for refugees to be accepted into Germany
In return, the human rights organization “Pro Asyl” demanded that refugees be admitted to Germany.
“We demand that Germany at least let all those who have family ties to Germany enter the country,” said managing director Günter Burkhardt.
In addition, he targeted so-called pushbacks by Polish security forces.
+
Thousands of migrants are still on the border with Poland.
© Leonid Shcheglov / BelTA / AP / dpa
"The border must be opened to prevent further deaths and to provide humanitarian aid," Burkhardt continued. "We have to treat people as people and ask ourselves why this is not happening and whether racist thought patterns guide political action at the EU border." At the moment, "humanity and justice, including the freedom of the press guaranteed in the EU and access to the rule of law, have fallen by the wayside".
But Germany has also "systematically blocked family reunification so far" and the relationship that many of the refugees have to Germany "has not yet played a role," criticized Burkhardt.
He called for "legal ways" so that people outside of the nuclear family could come to relatives in Germany.
Burkhardt sees the future federal government as responsible for this.
+
Brandenburg Interior Minister Michael Stübgen (CDU) wants to demand clear measures against Belarus.
© Jens Kalaene / dpa-Zentralbild / dpa
Belarus crisis: US Vice President Harris "very worried" - Iraq wants to bring back migrants
Update from November 12, 3:30 p.m
.: The US is concerned about the situation on the Polish-Belarusian border, where thousands of migrants are waiting on their way to the EU. "We are very concerned and have a look at it," said US Vice President Kamala Harris in Paris. "The Lukashenko regime is involved in worrying activities." The world is watching what is happening there, said Harris.
Update from November 12, 3:23 p.m
.: Iraq apparently wants to help curb the influx of migrants on the Polish-Belarusian border.
The government in Baghdad is now planning to bring back Iraqi migrants stuck on the EU's eastern external border.
They are ready to organize several trips for Iraqis "who want to return," said a Foreign Ministry spokesman for the
AFP
news
agency
.
Those willing to return are currently being registered.
Federal government regrets Lukashenko's gas threat - Maas announces new sanctions against Belarus
Update from November 12th, 2:46 p.m
.: The German government has "regretted" threats by the Belarusian ruler Alexander Lukashenko
to stop
gas transit to the EU, said a spokeswoman for the Ministry of Economic Affairs in Berlin.
The Yamal-Europe pipeline is only one of several pipelines, which is why Germany's security of supply is guaranteed.
In view of possible new EU sanctions against Belarus, Lukashenko threatened to stop gas transit through the Yamal-Europe pipeline.
The Yamal-Europe pipeline transports only a small part of the gas to the west.
Update from November 12th, 2.40 p.m
.: In the migration dispute with Belarus, the EU will impose new sanctions in the coming week, according to the executive foreign minister Heiko Maas (SPD).
At the meeting of EU foreign ministers on Monday in Brussels, the sanctions would be extended to people "who indirectly or directly" supported the smuggling of migrants to Belarus, Maas told the
Rheinische Post
and the
Bonner General-Anzeiger
.
"We have to make sure that this chain of smugglers is broken," said Maas.
In addition, there will be an extensive list of sanctioned individuals very soon.
In the dispute, Maas had already announced that the sanctions against Belarus would be tightened.
The Foreign Minister now emphasized that airlines, too, might have to expect punitive measures.
"All airlines need to know who is guilty of complicity in criminal smugglers, who will have to face consequences, including sanctions for overflight rights or landing permits."
According to Maas, talks are ongoing with airlines that are already having an impact.
For example, Turkish Airlines no longer takes citizens from Iraq, Syria and Yemen on flights to Minsk.
Update from November 12, 1:42 p.m
.: According to the Polish Defense Minister Mariusz Blaszczak, British soldiers will now also help secure the Belarusian border.
These would work with the Polish military, Blaszczak informed on Twitter.
After an initial exploration of the border, the British soldiers will be informed of the details, said the Polish Defense Minister.
Rozpoczął się rekonesans przed wsparciem wojsk inżynieryjnych Wielkiej Brytanii.
Nasi żołnierze nawiążą współpracę przy umacnianiu ogrodzenia na granicy polsko-białoruskiej.
Po zakończeniu rekonesansu poinformujemy o szczegółach.
pic.twitter.com/jwMEkH5u09
- Mariusz Błaszczak (@mblaszczak) November 12, 2021
Belarus and Russia hold military maneuvers on Polish border - EU announces progress in curbing the flow of migrants
Update from November 12, 1:37 p.m
.: Belarus and Russia have announced joint military exercises near the Polish border.
A "joint tactical battalion group" with paratroopers from both countries is holding exercises in the Grodno region in western Belarus, the Belarusian Defense Ministry announced on Telegram on Friday.
It justified the move with the "increase in military activity" near the Belarusian border.
According to Mink, Russian Il-76 military aircraft and Belarusian military helicopters are involved in the exercises.
According to Russian news agencies, the Ministry of Defense in Moscow said it was a surprise mission to "check the combat readiness" of the troops.
Belarusian journalist Tadeusz Giczan shared photos of the joint military exercises on Twitter.
First photos of Russian paratroopers deployed to Belarus' border with Poland and Lithuania.
pic.twitter.com/cU3yYQpKs8
- Tadeusz Giczan (@TadeuszGiczan) November 12, 2021
Update from November 12th, 1:35 p.m
.: According to the EU Commission, Brussels' efforts to curb the influx of migrants from the Middle East on the external border with Belarus are showing initial successes.
There is "progress on all fronts," said the Vice President of the EU Commission responsible for migration, Margaritis Schinas, on Friday after a meeting with Lebanese President Michel Aoun in Beirut.
On Thursday, Schinas held talks on the subject in Dubai.
Brussels had already put pressure on several states and threatened sanctions against airlines involved in the smuggling of refugees.
Turkey then banned nationals from Syria, Iraq and Yemen from flights from Turkish airports to Belarus on Friday.
People from Lebanon with a destination EU are also to be flown to Minsk.
During his visit to Dubai, Schinas welcomed the "strong commitment" of the United Arab Emirates authorities to "tackle this problem together," the Commission said.
"I will travel to Baghdad on Monday and hopefully to Ankara at the end of next week," said Schinas in Beirut.
Europe is currently counting "in a way its friends and we are very happy that we have many".
Belarus crisis: “more pressure” - opposition leader Tichanowskaya calls for “more courageous action” from Germany
Update from November 12, 10:52 a.m
.: The Belarusian opposition leader Svetlana Tichanovskaya has called on Germany to take more decisive action against those in power in her homeland.
"We continue to communicate with the German government (...) so that they make Belarus a priority in foreign policy, so that they can be more courageous in their actions," said the exiled opposition politician in an interview with Deutsche Welle on Thursday.
She was “grateful for any support” from every country, but at the same time “much more could be done”, she said, and called for “more economic and political pressure on the regime”.
She also stated: “Because of the bureaucracy, decisions are made rather slowly, perhaps also out of uncertainty.” However, the migration crisis “did not start yesterday”, but new sanctions are only now being discussed, she added.
She also expressed her conviction that Lukashenko will not carry out his threat after the gas supplies to the EU are stopped.
Tichanovskaya thinks this is a "bluff".
Federal President Frank-Walter Steinmeier received Tichanowskaya on Thursday against the background of the refugee dispute between the EU and Belarus at Bellevue Palace.
+
The Belarusian opposition politician Tichanovskaya called for “more courageous action” against Lukashenko.
Before that, she met Federal President Steinmeier.
© Wolfgang Kumm / dpa
UN Security Council: European countries and USA condemn Lukashenko's government
Update from November 12th, 10:40 am
: The USA and several European countries have condemned the government's actions in Minsk with a view to the refugee crisis on the border between Belarus and the EU.
In a joint statement, they accused Belarus of "orchestrated instrumentalization of people" at an emergency meeting of the UN Security Council on Thursday.
The aim of the ruler Alexander Lukashenko's action is to "destabilize the external border of the European Union".
Belarus' aim is also to "destabilize neighboring countries" and "divert attention from its own growing human rights violations," said the joint statement by the US, France, Estonia, Ireland, the UK and Norway.
Lukashenko's strategy is "unacceptable" and must result in a "strong international reaction".
Before the meeting, Dmitri Polyansky, Russia's deputy UN ambassador, spoke of a “masochistic tendency” of his Western colleagues: It was very courageous to raise this issue, which was a shame for the EU, in front of Russia.
In addition, not all problems need to be addressed by the Security Council, said Poljanski.
First report from November 12th, 9.45 a.m .:
Currently the Belarusian-Polish border is a hotspot for a new flow of refugees towards Europe.
With the hope of reaching European countries, thousands of migrants are waiting in icy temperatures on the EU's eastern external border.
On several occasions, larger groups have tried in vain to break through the fence system that Poland uses to prevent them from crossing the border.
Migrants at the Polish border - Turkish authorities want to control flights to Belarus
The government in Warsaw and the EU accuse the authoritarian Belarusian ruler Alexander Lukashenko of targeting people from crisis regions in order to smuggle them into the EU. Lukashenko has so far rejected the allegations and threatens the EU, among other things with the shutdown of gas lines. The EU has launched new sanctions that could be formally adopted early next week.
Now is a decisive step from Turkey, which could have a positive impact on the situation at the EU's external border.
Under pressure from the European Union, Ankara wants to control flights to Belarus from now on in order to prevent the onward journey of migrants mainly from the northern part of Iraq, an EU official confirmed to
Bloomberg
.
Previously, an investigation showed that most of the migrants' route to Belarus runs through Turkey.
Belarus migrant crisis: no tickets to Minsk from Turkey - restrictions for Belavia
According to the EU official, one-way tickets for flights from Turkey to Minsk will no longer be sold. Belavia, the state airline of Belarus, will also no longer be able to use Turkish Airlines' Middle East network to fly travelers via Istanbul to Minsk, it said. The civil aviation authority of Turkey announced on Friday that people with Syrian, Iraqi and Yemeni passports are no longer allowed to buy tickets or board until further notice.
The state-owned Belarusian airline Belavia also announced on its website that citizens from the three countries were no longer allowed to board their planes according to a decision by the Turkish authorities.
Passengers affected by the ban could return their tickets at the point of sale and get their money refunded.
(dpa / bb)
List of rubric lists: © Leonid Shcheglov via www.imago-images.de
