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Belarus conflict: more than 100 migrants flown out - Lukashenko is now also demanding money

2021-11-23T13:29:05.775Z


Migrants tried again to break through the Belarusian-Polish border. Poland's prime minister warned that the situation was "far from over". The news ticker.


Migrants tried again to break through the Belarusian-Polish border.

Poland's prime minister warned that the situation was "far from over".

The news ticker.

  • The Polish border guards again prevented around 150 migrants from breaking through the EU's eastern external border

    (first report on November 22nd, 10:40 a.m.).

  • Polish Prime Minister Morawiecki warned of a direct conflict with Russia

    (update from November 22, 10.50 a.m.).

  • Ruler Lukashenko turned to Chancellor Angela Merkel again on Monday

    (update from November 22, 11:52 a.m.)

    .

  • This news ticker is continuously updated.

Belarus border crisis: 118 more migrants left voluntarily - majority insist on admission to the EU

Update from November 23, 11.40 a.m.:

In the refugee dispute with the EU, the Belarusian authorities have flown out dozens of other migrants according to their own statements.

On Monday, 118 people left the country via the capital's airport in Minsk, a representative of the Interior Ministry said on Tuesday, according to the state news agency Belta.

Another group should follow on Tuesday.

The officer left the question of the destinations of the flights unanswered.

He said, however, that several countries' embassies - including Syria and Iraq - are organizing return flights for citizens who are "in a difficult situation". The Belarusian authorities are helping migrants willing to return to clear their papers, said the interior ministry representative. The authorities also worked with the UN migration agency IOM and the UN refugee agency UNHCR to bring people from the border area to the EU.

After more than two weeks, however, around 2,000 migrants are still waiting in a logistics center on the border with Poland. Many of them still hope to be accepted in Germany. "We definitely do not want to go to Iraq and stay until we are allowed into the EU," said the 25-year-old Gaschtjar of the German press agency on Tuesday. The majority of people insist on admission to the EU, said Alexei Begun, head of the Department for Migration of the Ministry of Interior in Minsk, according to the state agency Belta.

Nobody applied for refugee status in Belarus, he said.

“They also reject all proposals to return to their home countries.” The fate of the people is being clarified in cooperation with international refugee organizations.

The goal is repatriation, said Begun.

According to the authorities, EU experts also stayed in the camp in Brusgi on the Polish border, used as emergency accommodation, to get an idea of ​​the situation.

The Belarusian power apparatus is demanding funding from the EU in order to stop the migrants again in the future.

In addition, the EU should compensate the current expenses for migrants in the emergency shelter of around 20,000 euros a day, it said.

+

More than 100 other migrants returned voluntarily, but there are still around 2,000 refugees at the Polish border.

© Leonid SHCHEGLOV / BELTA / AFP

Update from November 23, 9.45 a.m.:

According to the Belarusian state agency Belta, experts from the EU Commission are currently visiting facilities for migrants on the eastern EU external border between Poland and Belarus.

The Vice-Governor of the Belarusian administrative district of Grodno informed EU technical experts about the conditions in the logistics centers where thousands of refugees are housed on the border with Poland.

"We have the necessary stock of food and the supply process is well organized," quoted Belta Grodnos Vice-Governor Viktor Pranyuk.

Two ambulances are on call around the clock and doctors take care of 40 to 70 patients a day, said Pranyuk.

In addition, so far only one migrant has been infected with the corona virus.

Belarus crisis: Angela Merkel telephones with Belarusian opposition leader Tichanovskaya

Update from November 22nd, 8:03 p.m

.: Angela Merkel (CDU), Executive Chancellor, spoke to the Belarusian opposition leader Svetlana Tichanovskaya on Monday. Tichanovskaya had previously criticized Merkel - at least indirectly - because of the phone call with the Belarusian ruler Alexander Lukashenko. The conversation was about assuring support for the Belarusian opposition, said government spokesman Steffen Seibert. In addition, Merkel continued to demand that the political leadership in Belarus “must stop the repression against the opposition and independent journalists, release prisoners and enter into a serious dialogue with society”. Merkel therefore also renewed the demand for “fair and free new elections”.

Belarus crisis: Italian Prime Minister Draghi talks to Putin on the phone

Update from November 22nd, 5:32 p.m.:

The Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi talked to the Russian President Vladimir Putin on the phone about Belarus, as both governments announced on Monday.

Draghi and Putin had stressed the "relevance" of cooperation between Belarus and the European Union in order to find a quick solution to the crisis, Moscow said.

Previously, the Belarusian opposition leader had strongly criticized direct telephone calls with the Belarusian ruler Alexander Lukashenko.

Belarus crisis: Belarusian opposition leader criticizes Merkel's phone call to Lukashenko - "looked very strange"

Update from November 22nd, 4:05 pm:

The exiled Belarusian opposition leader Svetlana Tichanovskaya has called on the EU governments to “refrain from any contact” with the Belarusian head of state Alexander Lukashenko. The Belarusian leadership must first meet important demands of the opposition before a “real dialogue” can take place, she said at a press conference in Vienna on Monday. She also criticized the phone calls that Chancellor Angela Merkel (CDU) made with Lukashenko last week because of the refugee crisis.

"I understand why this was done," said Tichanovskaya about the phone calls.

It is about de-escalating the situation at the borders with the EU.

"But as a Belarusian and from the point of view of the Belarusian people it looked very strange," she said after an international conference in Vienna on the situation in Belarus, which was attended by foreign ministers from Germany, Estonia and Poland.

Lukashenko must first release all political prisoners and end the violence against the opposition and demonstrators.

She asked the foreign ministers "to refrain from any contact with the regime until these conditions are met," said Tichanovskaya.

Otherwise “only the feeling of impunity” for Lukashenko would “intensify”.

She identified sanctions and civil society support as the only way forward.

Belarus conflict: German government rejects Lukashenko's demand for refugee admission - "no acceptable solution"

Update from November 22nd, 1:15 p.m.:

The federal government has rejected the request of the Belarusian head of state Alexander Lukashenko to accept 2,000 refugees stuck on the border with Poland.

This is not a "solution that is acceptable for Germany or the EU," said government spokesman Steffen Seibert on Monday.

According to the state news agency Belta, Lukashenko had previously criticized the EU for refusing to hold talks about accepting the refugees.


Lukashenko had also accused the EU of breaking its word. The German Chancellor Angela "Merkel has promised me that she will examine this problem at EU level," said the Belarusian President, who had spoken to Merkel twice on the phone last week. "But they don't." Looking at the 2,000 refugees in the warehouse, Lukashenko said, according to Belta: "We have to ask the Germans to take them in".

Last week, with reference to Merkel, the Belarusian leadership spoke of a "humanitarian corridor to Germany". Seibert said now that Merkel had phoned Lukashenko "because there is a dire humanitarian situation along the Belarusian-Polish border". "And because, of course, the attempt must always be made to find solutions in the interests of the people who persevere in very, very difficult circumstances."


Merkel also spoke with the head of the UN refugee agency UNHCR, Filippo Grandi, and the head of the UN migration organization IOM, António Vitorino.

The federal government is trying to "create access for these organizations so that they can help with the humanitarian care of migrants along the border".

But they should also be able to take action "when it comes to safe repatriation to their home countries," said Seibert.

+

Government spokesman Seibert described Lukashenko's request to accept refugees as "not an acceptable solution".

© Britta Pedersen / dpa-Zentralbild / dpa

Belarus border crisis: Lukashenko demands that Germany and the EU accept refugees

Update from November 22nd, 11:52 am:

In the conflict over thousands of migrants in Belarus who want to cross the Polish border into the European Union, the authoritarian ruler Alexander Lukashenko relies on Europe to give in. "I'm waiting for the EU's answer to the question about the 2,000 refugees," he said on Monday in the capital Minsk at a meeting with the governor of Grodno, the region bordering Poland in the west of the ex-Soviet republic. He asked the EU and especially Germany to “take these people from us”.

Lukashenko had phoned Executive Chancellor Angela Merkel twice in the past week *.

Lukashenko then claimed that the CDU politician wanted to work for a “humanitarian corridor” for 2000 migrants, mainly to Germany.

However, Federal Interior Minister Horst Seehofer (CSU) denied the report of such an agreement with Belarus.

"They want to go to Germany (...) - and we will try to help them in every possible way," said Lukashenko, according to a statement from his authority.

Hundreds of people had already flown back to Iraq on a special flight last Thursday.

According to the ruler, his country is preparing another such flight for migrants to their homeland.

According to Lukashenko's earlier statements, there are allegedly 7,000 migrants in Belarus.

Belarus: Germany's Foreign Minister Maas wants to strengthen the exile opposition to Lukashenko

Update from November 22nd, 11.35 a.m.:

According to Federal Foreign Minister Heiko Maas (SPD), Germany wants to give the Belarusian opposition in exile more support.

"Since it has become almost impossible to support activities in Belarus, we have to intensify our cooperation with the people in exile," said Maas (SPD) on Monday at a virtual international conference on the situation in the country according to the previously published manuscript of the speech.

He also criticized the Belarusian government for its "cynical instrumentalisation of migrants" in the conflict with the EU.

The exiled Belarusian opposition leader Svetlana Tichanovskaya also took part in the conference organized by Austria. Maas called on the opposition activist and her colleagues living abroad to unite. The Belarusian ruler Alexander Lukashenko hopes to "wear them down" over time. However, you could "prove the opposite" to him. Maas also promised financial aid for the opposition in exile.

In Belarus there are now more than 870 political prisoners, Maas cited, describing the number as a "high".

There have also been reports of hundreds of cases of torture.

"The regime has taken the remaining leeway from civil society," emphasized the Federal Foreign Minister.

Even "completely apolitical organizations and associations" are no longer allowed to work.

Maas also criticized "the shocking images" of the refugee dispute on the border between Poland and Belarus: "Images of freezing children, women and men in forests - and of Belarusian border guards who force people into barbed wire fences".

They are the "final proof of Lukashenko's wickedness".

+

According to Federal Foreign Minister Maas, Germany wants to give more support to the Belarusian opposition in exile.

© Kay Nietfeld / dpa

Belarus migrants: Poland's prime minister warns of direct conflict - "start to something much worse"

Update from November 22nd, 10:50 am:

Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki warns that the crisis on the Belarusian-Polish border is "far from over".

In addition, the current situation could be “the prelude to something much worse”.

On Sunday (November 21), Morawiecki visited the neighboring Baltic countries of Estonia, Lithuania and Latvia to discuss the events on the Belarusian border.

"I think that these things that are happening before our eyes, these dramatic incidents, can only be the prelude to something very worse," said the Polish head of government in the Lithuanian capital Vilnius.

Specifically, he indicated the danger of an armed conflict, referring to the Russian military presence on the Ukrainian border, in Belarus and in Kaliningrad.

The military equipment in these areas could be an "instrument for a direct attack," said Morawiecki.

In line with this fear from the Polish Prime Minister, the Belarusian ruler Lukashenko previously indirectly threatened with Russian nuclear weapons.

+

Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morwiecki fears “much worse” with regard to the crisis on the Belarusian border.

© Ronald Wittek / Pool EPA / AP / dpa

Belarus conflict: Poland's border guards prevent new attempts by migrants to break through the border

First report from November 22nd, 10:40 am:

The situation on the eastern EU external border between Belarus and Poland remains tense.

On Thursday

(November 18)

around 430 migrants were flown to Iraq on a first return flight, but attempts to break through the border are apparently continuing.

Refugees who are still on the Polish border regularly try to cross the border.

So far, however, they have failed because of the Polish border protection.

According to the border guards, a group of around 150 migrants tried again in vain on Monday night to break the border barriers from Belarus and enter the EU illegally.

The incident occurred near the town of Dubicze Cerkiewne, the authority said.

"The attack on the Polish border was overseen by the Belarusian security forces," the statement also said.

Recordings of the incident were posted on Twitter.

Wczoraj tj.

21.11 na odcinku ochranianym przez Placówkę w Dubiczach Cerkiewnych ok.

150 agresywnych cudzoziemców próbowało wedrzeć się na terytorium Polski🇵🇱.


Atak na polską granice nadzorowany był przez białoruskie służby. # Zgranicy pic.twitter.com/aBYTO02lMw

- Straż Graniczna (@Straz_Graniczna) November 22, 2021

Poland's intelligence coordinator Stanislaw Zaryn accused Belarus of continuing to lead groups of refugees to the Polish border.

"When the border line is attacked, Belarusian officials support attempts to illegally enter the Republic of Poland," Zaryn said on Twitter.

Both the migrants and the Belarusian security forces would act more and more aggressively, said the intelligence coordinator.

Lukashenko: "Show physical confrontation with the West"?

Poland is making allegations

The European Union * accuses Belarusian ruler Alexander Lukashenko * of bringing migrants from crisis regions to the EU's external border in an organized manner in order to put pressure on the West.

The people from Iraq, Syria and Afghanistan entered Belarus on tourist visas.

Poland's President Andrzej Duda told

Sieci

magazine

that Lukashenko may be

targeting

Poland “because we are toughly defending the border and the regime in Minsk is interested in showing a physical confrontation with the West”.

In Belarus, supplies for migrants started again in the morning at an emergency shelter in Brusgi on the border with Poland.

Pictures from the state agency Belta showed soldiers distributing hot tea, cookies, yogurt and curd.

An estimated 2000 people use the warehouse as a temporary sleeping place.

It is unclear how things will go on with the migrants in the long term.

Experts from the World Health Organization are currently in Belarus.

They wanted to clarify how the WHO could help in the crisis.

According to the authorities, around 100 migrants have already been taken to hospitals, including people with pneumonia.

There is great concern about a corona outbreak in the emergency accommodation.

(bb with material from dpa) * Merkur.de is an offer from IPPEN.MEDIA

List of rubric lists: © Andrei Stasevich / BelTA / AP / dpa

Source: merkur

All news articles on 2021-11-23

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