Monday, November 8th, 2021
On foot from Belarus
Hundreds of migrants on their way to Poland
Photos and videos show hundreds of people walking with their belongings from Belarus to Poland. According to Poland, where the group will break through the border will be determined by an armed Belarusian unit. Warsaw therefore convenes a crisis team.
According to the authorities in Belarus, a larger group of migrants is walking towards the border with the neighboring EU country Poland. The photos show how hundreds of people carry their belongings. According to a report by the state news agency Belta, the border guards of the authoritarian-led ex-Soviet republic declared that “all necessary measures” had been taken to ensure security.
From the point of view of the Polish government, the group could try to break the border near the town of Kuznica Bialostocka. “According to the latest information, this huge group of migrants is under the control of armed Belarusian forces who decide where to go and where not,” wrote Stanislaw Zaryn, intelligence coordinator on Twitter.
He spoke of another hostile action by the neighboring country against Poland. The Polish government therefore convened a crisis team. The Belarusian ruler Alexander Lukashenko sees himself being criticized for having people flown in from crisis regions in order to smuggle them into the EU. In response to sanctions against his country, he had declared that he would no longer stop people on their way to a better life in the “cozy West”.
In response to the current situation, Lithuania is also sending military to its border with Belarus. The Lithuanian Interior Minister Agne Bilotaite announced at a press conference. According to her, the cabinet will discuss whether a state of emergency will be declared in the border area. The authorities did not want to specify how many soldiers were to be sent to the region and where exactly they were to be posted, and cited security reasons for this. Lithuania had recently started building a wall on the border.
The EU states Poland and Lithuania have reported thousands of border crossings in the past few months. Germany is considered a main destination for migrants. There have already been several migrant deaths in the border region with Belarus. The EU has not recognized Lukashenko as head of state of Belarus (formerly Belarus) since the controversial presidential election last year. The “last dictator in Europe”, as critics call him, is supported by Russian President Vladimir Putin. The Kremlin welcomed the authorities’ actions on the migrants.