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On the way to resolving the crisis? Belarus evacuates immigrant camps on the Polish border - Walla! news

2021-11-18T22:03:36.102Z


In Warsaw they have confirmed that the camps have been emptied in the last day, but are waiting to see what the next step of the Lukashenko regime is. Minsk has asked Germany to take in about 2,000 immigrants, but Berlin refuses. Meanwhile, hundreds of Iraqis have returned to their homeland. "This is the worst place to be"


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On the way to resolving the crisis?

Belarus evacuated the immigrant camps on the Polish border

In Warsaw they have confirmed that the camps have been emptied in the last day, but are waiting to see what the next step of the Lukashenko regime is.

Minsk has asked Germany to take in about 2,000 immigrants, but Berlin refuses.

Meanwhile, hundreds of Iraqis have returned to their homeland.

"This is the worst place to be"

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  • Belarus

  • Poland

  • Immigrants

  • The European Union

Reuters

Thursday, 18 November 2021, 22:12 Updated: 22:40

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Immigrants on the Belarusian border (Photo: Reuters)

Authorities in Belarus today (Thursday) evacuated the main immigrant camps on the border with Poland, in what appears to be a significant development in the crisis that has intensified in recent weeks into a conflict between the West and the East. Belarus's official news agency reported that the migrants hiding in the forest had been brought to the center of the country, far from the border.



A Polish Border Police spokesman confirmed that the camps had been evacuated and that the migrants had apparently been taken to a logistics transport center. "There are no more such camps, but there are groups that appear elsewhere in an attempt to cross the border. We will see what happens in the next few hours. There are still people around, but there is no doubt that it will be emptied."



In recent weeks, hundreds of migrants have tried to cross the border at night and confront Polish forces. It is estimated that about ten of them died in the frozen forests. One of them is a one-year-old baby, according to his parents, who told the Humanitarian Aid Center in Poland, both of whom are injured.



European countries accuse Belarus of creating the crisis by flying immigrants from the Middle East and encouraging them to try and cross EU borders illegally.

Minsk, which is supported by Russia, denies this, but the Lithuanian president said that the aggressive position of the EU is starting to pay off.



"We are seeing first results - the flights organized by the regime from the Middle East have stopped, and the migrants in Belarus are returning home," he said after a conversation with his Polish counterpart.

(Photo: Reuters)

The move to evacuate the camps came after a week of feverish diplomatic efforts. German Chancellor Angela Merkel has spoken twice in three days to Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko, following more than a year of Western boycott following the repression of his opponents.



Belarus said Lukashenko had offered Merkel a plan to resolve the crisis, saying the EU would absorb about 2,000 migrants, while Minsk would send about 5,000 migrants back home. However, Berlin and the European Commission rejected the proposal.



"If we absorb refugees, if we give in to pressure and say 'we are taking refugees into European countries', then that means implementing this treacherous strategy," German Interior Minister Horst Zyhofer emphasized during his visit to Warsaw. A government source said Germany had not agreed to any deal, and clarified that this was a Europe-wide problem.



The European Commission stressed that there could be no negotiations with Belarus on the suffering of immigrants.

"We have clarified our position - it is an artificial crisis created by a state, and it is the responsibility of the Lukashenko regime to stop it and resolve it," said a spokesman for the commission, who declined to comment on the proposal.



In another sign that the crisis has not yet been resolved, US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken has warned of further sanctions on Belarus.

"It is completely unscrupulous that Lukashenko and Belarus are trying to turn immigration into weapons," he told reporters during his visit to Nigeria.

(Photo: Reuters)

Russian President Vladimir Putin, whom many in the West see as the mastermind behind the crisis, today called on Lukashenko to open a dialogue with his rivals, who quickly rejected the proposal until all political prisoners were released.

In the West, it is suspected that Moscow is taking advantage of the crisis on the Belarusian border to invade Ukraine, given its large concentration of forces near its borders.

Putin warned today that the West does not take Russia's "red lines" with regard to Ukraine, especially its possible membership in NATO, seriously enough.

"We are all sick, especially the children"

Earlier today, hundreds of Iraqi immigrants took off from Minsk back to their homeland, on a first-of-its-kind return flight since August.

"I would not have returned without my wife," said a 30-year-old Iraqi Kurd who refused to identify himself.

"She did not want to go back to the border with me, because she saw a lot of horrors there."

He said the couple tried to cross at least eight times from Belarus to Lithuania and Poland.



At the same time, Belarus' national airline, Blavia, has stopped taking Afghan, Iraqi, Lebanese, Libyan, Syrian and Yemeni citizens on its flights from the Uzbek capital to Minsk.

This is in the shadow of the pressure exerted by the EU on the countries of the region not to allow immigrants to board flights to Belarus.



Before the camps on the border were evacuated, the immigrants told Reuters about the harsh conditions there.

"It's a very bad place to live, it's very cold for us, we're all sick, especially the children. It's the worst place there is," said Narmin, an Iraqi citizen.

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Source: walla

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