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EU refugee experts warn: Russia is using migration as a weapon to 'exploit Europe's weaknesses'

2022-12-07T04:15:47.523Z


EU refugee experts warn: Russia is using migration as a weapon to 'exploit Europe's weaknesses' Created: 07/12/2022 05:09 By: Andreas Schmid People fleeing war: is migration used as a weapon? © Viktor Tolochko/Imago (montage) Refugees are repeatedly used in Europe as a means of exerting pressure. In an interview with IPPEN.MEDIA, EU asylum experts warn of a possible Putin strategy. Strasbourg


EU refugee experts warn: Russia is using migration as a weapon to 'exploit Europe's weaknesses'

Created: 07/12/2022 05:09

By: Andreas Schmid

People fleeing war: is migration used as a weapon?

© Viktor Tolochko/Imago (montage)

Refugees are repeatedly used in Europe as a means of exerting pressure.

In an interview with IPPEN.MEDIA, EU asylum experts warn of a possible Putin strategy.

Strasbourg – Russia bombs civilian infrastructure in Ukraine.

Russian missiles keep landing in homes, causing many people to flee the war zone.

Is this a deliberate strategy by the Kremlin to destabilize the EU?

It would not be the first time that states have used refugees as a means of exerting pressure, say EU asylum politicians in an interview with IPPEN.MEDIA.

Migration as a weapon?

“A strategy to exploit Europe”

"When you see how Ukraine's infrastructure is being destroyed in a targeted manner, you get the impression that Russia wants to totally disillusion the people in Ukraine," says SPD MP Birgit Sippel.

She actively helped shape European legislation on migration and asylum.

"And of course you can imagine that there is also the idea that more people are fleeing to the EU and that this should also cause problems for us." acted.

The Green politician and migration and refugee expert Erik Marquardt also sees "a strategy to exploit Europe's weaknesses with refugee movements".

Russia is trying to destabilize the EU through refugee movements.

"It is one of Putin's goals that more and more people have to flee as a result of the attacks on infrastructure." However, the success of this strategy depends "not on how many people have to flee, but on whether we still give constitutional answers when dealing with refugee movements". .

Green politician Erik Marquardt in conversation with IPPEN.MEDIA political journalist Andreas Schmid.

© fkn

The EU's answer is the so-called Temporary Protection Directive.

As a result, Ukrainians in Europe do not need an asylum procedure or a visa.

This should help people faster and with less bureaucracy.

The United Nations assumes that there have been 7.9 million registered Ukrainian refugees since the beginning of the war.

The CDU politician Lena Düpont, chairwoman of the Frontex control committee and migration policy spokeswoman for the CDU/CSU group in the EU Parliament, sees this as a geopolitical signal that Putin did not expect: "We will not let ourselves be put under pressure and will do our part The right to humanitarian aid is fair for the people.” The EU is actually largely in agreement when it comes to solidarity with Ukraine.

In the past, however, significantly fewer refugees caused panic.

Belarus as a harbinger of Russia: Lukashenko's successful refugee pressure on the EU

There is currently a legislative proposal in the EU to deal with the instrumentalization of refugees.

The project is a reaction to the migration conflict with Belarus.

Russia's neighboring country around the ruler Alexander Lukashenko lured refugees to Europe last year with false promises and deliberately allowed them to stay on the Polish-Belarusian border, among other things.

"To put Europe under pressure," as SPD politician Sippel says.

"And what I think is bad: That was successful." Europe reacted with a kind of quick-fix policy: "Basically, the Commission and the member states said: Yes, you can put pressure on us by bringing people to our borders".

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“There are intrigues around”

Migrants camp next to barbed wire on the border with Poland in November 2021.

Lukashenko wanted to put pressure on the EU authorities to drop the sanctions against Belarus.

© Ulf Mauder/picture alliance/dpa

CDU politician Düpont sees the events in Belarus as a harbinger of the current situation with Russia.

“It was a kind of preliminary test that was supposed to show how the member states react to migratory pressure.

Of course, this also clearly pursued Russian interests.”

There are currently reports of Lukashenko's new strategy.

According to Lithuania, Belarusian authorities should encourage migrants to try to cross the EU border illegally barefoot in cold weather.

This is intended to put pressure on the Lithuanian border guards.

Migration as a means of pressure: Serbia "not so far removed from instrumentalization"

In other countries, refugees are also used as leverage.

EU accession candidate Serbia has visa agreements with Tunisia, India and Burundi.

Serbia faces accusations of allowing people from these countries into the EU because their governments do not recognize Kosovo, which is independent of Serbia.

According to Düpont, this is "not so far removed from instrumentalization".

Marquardt points out that some of these agreements have been in place for years, but have not yet been used.

Serbia does not seem to know exactly how it would like to orient itself politically in the future.

For the past ten years, the country has wanted to become a member of the EU. At the same time, a kind of pendulum policy with Putin and Russia has recently been observed.

“Serbia is trying a bit to benefit from both sides – the EU and Russia,” says Düpont.

Greece, Hungary, Croatia: Violence against refugees at the EU's external borders

Some EU countries also have a sometimes idiosyncratic approach to dealing with refugees.

Marquardt was in Greece several times.

“There is totally disproportionate violence there.

People are stripped naked and thrown into rivers or abandoned in Turkish waters at night.

The death of people is accepted so that they cannot apply for asylum in Europe.” The UN refugee agency assumes that 300 people have drowned or gone missing since the beginning of the year.

The number of unreported cases is likely to be significantly higher.

There is also violence against refugees on the Croatian-Bosnian border.

In its report on Croatia, the Council of Europe's Anti-Torture Committee writes of "physical abuse of migrants by Croatian police officers".

Refugees are also being pushed back at the EU's external borders, in part by pushbacks, for example in Hungary.

pushback

Pushback refers to the mostly violent pushing back of migrants at the respective border.

They are considered illegal, although the term has not been finally clarified legally.

These practices are well documented.

According to a report by the EU anti-fraud agency OLAF, the EU border protection agency Frontex knew about all of this.

Refugees remain a means of pressure and become political pawns, but above all they are one thing: people.

Andreas Schmid reports from Strasbourg

About IPPEN.MEDIA

The IPPEN.MEDIA network is one of the largest online publishers in Germany.

At the locations in Berlin, Hamburg/Bremen, Munich, Frankfurt, Cologne, Stuttgart and Vienna, journalists from our central editorial office research and publish for more than 50 news offers.

These include brands such as Merkur.de, FR.de and BuzzFeed Germany.

Our news, interviews, analyzes and comments reach more than 5 million people in Germany every day.

Source: merkur

All news articles on 2022-12-07

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