Concern as more illegal migrants reach Germany via ‘Belarus route’
The number of migrants arriving in Germany by Poland and Belarus has gone up in recent months, authorities said.
German federal police said more than 4,300 people illegally crossed the border from Poland this year, with most of the migrants coming from Iraq, Syria, Yemen and Iran, German news agency dpa reported.
While from January to July only 26 people travelling via the "Belarus route" were registered, 474 arrived in August, 1,914 came to the country in September and 1,934 arrived in the first 11 days of October, according to federal police.
Most people are being put up at asylum reception centres in the eastern state of Brandenburg.
Tents have been added to the regular shelters, which can house 3,500 people, to make space for up to 5,000 migrants.
"The situation is not dramatic, but it is tough," said Olaf Jansen, head of the central foreigners' office in the eastern German town of Eisenhuettenstadt.
Mr Jansen added that there is also concern that coronavirus might spread among the new arrivals.
European Union leaders, including Chancellor Angela Merkel, have accused the Belarusian regime of facilitating large-scale migration into the EU as a form of "hybrid war" to destabilise the 27-nation bloc.
Thousands of migrants have been lured to Belarus on tourist visas and encouraged to cross into Poland, Lithuania and to a lesser extent Latvia – all three EU nations that border Belarus.
Several migrants recently died of exhaustion as they tried to get from Belarus to Poland across an area of forests and swamps.
In 2015-16, more than a million people fleeing war in the Middle East made dangerous journeys across the Mediterranean and Aegean seas, seeking safety in western Europe, and especially in Germany.
After their arrival, however, the EU put up concrete and razor-wire walls, installed drone surveillance and cut deals with Turkey and Libya to keep migrants away.
The far less protected path into the EU through the forests and swamps of eastern Europe emerged as a route only after the EU imposed sanctions on the regime of the authoritarian Belarusian president Alexander Lukashenko, following a flawed election and a harsh crackdown on protesters.
This report came a day after at least 15 migrants died while attempting to cross the Mediterranean from Libya.
The Libyan coastguard said it had responded to a distress call on Monday related to a wooden vessel carrying migrants and that its forces took 140 survivors and the bodies of 15 men back to a naval base in the capital Tripoli. It said all of the survivors had been handed over to police.
The navy said another 165 migrants had been intercepted and taken back to shore on the same day.
Libyan authorities launched an unprecedented crackdown on migrants earlier this month in the town of Gargaresh, a hub for migrants transiting to Europe, located just west of Tripoli.
They detained more than 5,000 people in a few days.