Poland accused Belarus of sending more and more migrants to the border in retaliation for Warsaw’s decision this week to provide asylum for Belarusian athlete Christina Zimanusskaya who refused to return to the country from the Tokyo Olympics.
The Deputy Minister of the Interior Maciej Wasik stated on Thursday (August 5) that Minsk is “waging a mixed war with the EU with the help of illegal immigrants”.
In recent weeks, Lithuania, a neighboring country and EU member state, has reported a surge in the number of people crossing the border illegally from Belarus, and that Minsk is flying in from abroad and sending them to the EU. Poland also borders Belarus.
“There are young men and women with children. Belarus is using these immigrants as living weapons,” Vasik told the online broadcaster Telewizja wPolsce.
“In recent days, we have seen an increase in (migrants). We see it as a reaction to the asylum of Belarusian sprinters.”
“There are young men and women with children. Belarus is using these immigrants as living weapons,” Poland’s deputy interior minister told reporters.https://t.co/sByeE8wdl9
-Radio Free Europe/Radio Freedom (@RFERL) August 5, 2021
As the European Union accuses President Alexander Lukashenko of using immigration to counter EU sanctions, Zimanusskaya’s Cold War defection has exacerbated tensions between the West and Minsk.
Government officials in Belarus could not be immediately reached for comment.
Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko accused Lithuania and Poland of contributing to border immigration issues on Thursday, saying that Lithuania wanted to use force to drive immigrants into Belarusian territory.
Belarus decided in May to allow immigrants to enter Lithuania in retaliation for the EU sanctions imposed on Lithuania after the EU forced a Ryanair flight to land on its territory in Minsk and arrested a dissident blogger.
Lukashenko said at the time that Belarus would not become a “housing place” for immigrants from Africa and the Middle East.
The Polish Border Guard told Reuters that between Wednesday and Thursday nights, they detained 71 migrants at the Belarusian border, and on Wednesday they detained 62 migrants, most of them Iraqis.
This is more than the 122 illegal immigrants detained at the border last year that the Border Guard said. Last month, 242 immigrants were stopped.
Vasik said that the most recently arrived immigrants are mainly from Iraq, but also from Afghanistan.
The Ministry of the Interior did not immediately respond to Reuters’ request for comment.
The EU has summoned the Belarusian special envoy in Brussels and held talks with the Iraqi government on the issue of illegal immigration.
