On the Belarusian-Polish border, thousands of refugees hope to get through to EU territory.
Poland's police are cracking down on them.
The news ticker.
Belarus crisis: According to the Polish government and the EU, the regime of ruler Alexander Lukashenko is targeting migrants to the border with Poland.
A first corona case has now become known in the border area
(update from November 18, 1 p.m.)
.
A first return flight started on Thursday.
Apparently Lukashenko turned unsuccessfully with an offer to Chancellor Angela Merkel (
update from November 18, 4:45 p.m.
).
This news ticker is continuously updated.
Update from November 18, 4:45 p.m.:
The Belarusian ruler Alexander Lukashenko has demanded that Chancellor Angela Merkel * (CDU) negotiate a "humanitarian corridor" for 2,000 migrants to the EU.
In return, during a phone call with the Chancellor, he offered to seek the return of 5,000 migrants to their home countries, as Lukashenko's spokeswoman Natalja Eismont said on Thursday, according to the state agency Belta.
It cannot be independently confirmed whether there are currently 7,000 migrants in Belarus.
With his advance, Lukashenko received a rejection in Berlin.
According to reports, the executive government sees the EU as responsible for questions relating to the humanitarian situation of people trapped in Belarus.
From Berlin government circles it was said on Thursday: “Germany has not agreed to this.
It is a European problem that Germany is not tackling alone. "
Belarus conflict: first special flight to Iraq starts - 5,000 flights home from Lukashenko?
Update from November 18, 2:20 p.m.:
A first special flight with Iraqi migrants on board started in Belarus on Thursday.
The plane with the destination Baghdad took off from the airport of the capital Minsk in the afternoon, as the airport announced on its website.
Many young people and families with children could be seen in videos from the Belarusian state agency Belta.
For days, thousands of people have been staying at the Belarusian-Polish border in the cold to get to Europe.
According to the leadership in Minsk, there are currently around 7,000 migrants in Belarus.
2000 of them are on the border with Poland, said President-Spokeswoman Natalja Eismont on Thursday and announced that Belarus would send 5,000 people back to their homeland.
Belarus: After Merkel phone call - von der Leyen refuses to hold talks with Lukashenko
Update from November 18, 1.40 p.m.:
The EU Commission rejects high-level talks with Belarus about the refugees at the EU's external border.
"Negotiations with the Lukashenko regime are out of the question," said the spokesman for EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, Eric Mamer, in Brussels on Thursday.
He expressed himself after a second phone call between Chancellor Angela Merkel (CDU) and the Belarusian ruler Alexander Lukashenko on Wednesday.
The EU Commission stated that it was currently conducting “technical talks” with the UN refugee aid organization UNHCR and the International Organization for Migration (IOM). A Belarusian official was also involved in this. The focus is on "returning people to the border" to the EU, emphasized the Commission spokesman.
The Belarusian state news agency Belta reported on Wednesday that Merkel and Lukashenko had agreed in a telephone conversation that the EU and Belarus would "start negotiations immediately".
The EU states do not recognize the re-election of long-time ruler Lukashenko in August 2020, which was overshadowed by accusations of fraud, and had imposed several sanctions.
Von der Leyen's spokesman emphasized that the EU did not have to give Merkel a “mandate” for her talks.
“The member states are free to maintain bilateral contacts, with whomever,” emphasized Mamer.
Merkel found herself exposed to harsh criticism after the conversation *.
Belarus escalation: Poland's Prime Minister with a crazy 50 million threat - now the first corona case follows
Update from November 18, 1 p.m.:
Belarus has reported a first corona case in the migrant emergency shelter near the Polish border.
The Belarusian state agency Belta reported on Thursday, citing a representative from the Grodno region, that a person was sick in the logistics hall that has been converted into a sleeping warehouse.
The sick person was taken to a hospital.
In the accommodation that opened on Tuesday, around a thousand people slept in a confined space on the floor over the past two nights.
Because rain threatens, more migrants are now to be accommodated on the upper floor.
More and more people are now leaving the forest right on the border with Poland, as a reporter from the German press agency reported on site.
A vaccination station is now being opened in the logistics hall, where a Chinese vaccine is to be administered, according to the Belarusian side.
Belarus received around 1.5 million cans from the Chinese manufacturer Sinopharm just a few days ago.
Belarus escalation: Poland arrests around one hundred migrants - Prime Minister with insane 50 million threat
Update from November 18, 11:57 a.m.:
The Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki warns Europe against an influx of "millions" of migrants with a lax border policy.
In view of the development on the Polish-Belarusian border, he did not rule out the risk of war.
"If we are not able to keep thousands of immigrants away now, then there will soon be hundreds of thousands, millions, who are coming to Europe," Morawiecki told the
picture
.
"If we do not decisively protect and defend our borders in Europe, hundreds of millions from Africa or the Middle East will try to come to Europe and especially to Germany." More than 80 million people lived in Germany.
"Would you allow 50 million more to come?"
Morawiecki described the situation on the Belarusian border, where thousands of migrants want to get to the EU country Poland, as stable with increasing risk. He did not want to rule out the risk of war. “The Belarusian forces are provoking more and more clearly. I hope you don't take that one step too far, ”he said. “Because we Poles are determined to protect our border by all means. The eastern border of Europe and also NATO. "
There are escalation levels, said Morawiecki. He is pleased about the support of Germany and other NATO countries. A joint declaration by Poland, Lithuania and Latvia could now follow. "Another step could be to activate Article 4 of the NATO treaty, which officially declares the violation of their national territories," he said. The article provides for allies to be consulted, but not for military assistance. Morawiecki added that they did not know what Belarus and Russia were planning. "It is also possible that the crisis at the border should only distract from new military attacks that (Russian President Vladimir,
editor's note
) is preparing Putin in Ukraine."
Update from November 18, 9.25 a.m.:
Polish security forces arrested around a hundred migrants on the border with Belarus on Thursday night. The refugees had tried to cross the heavily guarded border to Poland, said the Ministry of Defense in Warsaw. The arrests took place near the village of Dubicze Cerkiewne.
The Polish Ministry of Defense announced in the short message service Twitter that Belarusian forces had initially carried out reconnaissance and "most likely" damaged the barbed wire fence along the border.
"Then the Belarusians urged the migrants to throw stones at Polish soldiers as a distraction." The attempt to cross the border was made several hundred meters away.
Video footage from the Ministry of Defense shows how Polish soldiers surround a large group of people huddled in a wooded area next to barbed wire.
Belarus border: Poland rages after Merkel's phone call with Lukashenko
Update from November 17, 3:29 p.m.:
Chancellor Angela Merkel tried to mediate in the border dispute between Belarus and Poland. That is why the CDU politician phoned the Belarusian ruler Alexander Lukashenko. According to government spokesman Steffen Seibert, Merkel's phone call with the EU Commission had been agreed. "She made this phone call in close coordination with the European Commission and, after informing important partners in advance, also in the region," said Seibert on Wednesday (November 17th) in Berlin.
On the same day, critical tones came from the Polish side.
President Andrzej Duda stressed that his country would not accept any agreements if they were made without his participation.
He had made this clear the day before in a telephone conversation with Federal President Frank-Walter Steinmeier.
"In short: Poland will not recognize any agreements that (..) are concluded over our heads."
International mediation attempts were the subject of the conversation with Steinmeier, Duda said.
Poland sees Chancellor Merkel's attempt to contact Lukashenko with unease.
"We are a sovereign country that has the right to decide for itself," commented Duda on the process: "And we will exercise this right under all circumstances."
Belarus border: Poland sees the situation calm for the time being - migrants spend the night in a warehouse
First report from November 17, 1:16 p.m .:
Warsaw / Minsk - The tense situation on the border between Belarus and Poland has apparently calmed down a bit.
While clashes between the Polish police and migrants broke out on Tuesday (November 16) at the Kuznica-Brusgi crossing, the situation eased overnight, according to the Polish police.
After the riots, some of the migrants returned to Belarusian territory in the former tent camp
.
A police spokesman said on Wednesday (November 17) that another part of the group was able to spend the night at the Belarusian border clearance terminal.
On Wednesday morning, the Belarusian state agency
Belta published
photos showing numerous adults and children with blankets and sleeping bags in a hall.
On Tuesday (November 16), ruler Alexander Lukashenko ordered that several storage facilities of a logistics company in the Grodno region near the border be converted into overnight camps.
+
Numerous migrants stayed overnight in a Belarusian warehouse on the border with Poland.
© Ulf Mauder / dpa
Belarus-Poland: Polish secret service accuses Belarusian side of "coordinated attack"
In the clashes on Tuesday (November 16), Polish security forces also used water cannons against migrants, according to reports from Poland and Belarus.
Stanislaw Zaryn, spokesman for the coordinator of the Polish secret services, suspected a “coordinated attack against the Polish border” was behind the action.
Accordingly, the migrants had pelted the police officers and soldiers with stones, bottles and clods of earth.
The people were also armed with pop grenades and slingshots.
Poland is convinced that Belarusian security forces coordinated and observed the approximately two-hour attack.
An independent examination of this representation is currently not possible because Poland
does not allow
media access to the
border region.
Meanwhile, thousands of migrants remained on the Belarusian side in makeshift camps - despite temperatures around freezing point.
They tried to protect themselves against the cold with campfires.
Belarus: Lukashenko has migrants taken away from the border by bus
On Tuesday (November 17), however, the Polish government also announced that Belarus had started to evacuate the migrants. As a result, many of the migrants staying at the closed Kuznica-Brusgi border crossing were taken to another location by bus. “I got the information that Lukashenko has provided the first buses that the migrants get on and drive away,” said Poland's Deputy Interior Minister Maciej Wasik on
TV Republika
: “The camp near Kuznica is emptying. It looks like Lukashenko lost this battle for the border. "
Videos of four coaches were broadcast in the Belarusian state media.
According to the Red Cross, they bring some of the migrants "to other places".
The aim is to prevent the new night camp from being overcrowded.
The Polish border guards assume that around 2000 migrants have gathered near Kuznica.
(kh / dpa) * Merkur.de is an offer from IPPEN.MEDIA
List of rubric lists: © Pavel Orlovsky / dpa
