Crisis intensifies as migrants mass at border with EU
WARSAW — Poland, Lithuania and Latvia are considering asking NATO to hold emergency talks as they struggle to manage a tense migration standoff on their borders with Belarus, the Polish prime minister said Sunday.
Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki said he and his counterparts for the two Baltic states are discussing whether to ask for such talks under Article 4 of the NATO treaty, which allows any ally to request consultations if it feels its territorial integrity, political independence or security is threatened.
Still, it’s a step that has only been taken a few times in the history of the Western alliance.
The authoritarian Belarusian regime in Minsk has for months been orchestrating a flow of migrants across its border into the three European Union nations, which form the eastern flank of both the EU and NATO. They have been reinforcing their borders, seeking to block the newly opened migration route.
A deputy interior minister from Poland said Sunday that more migrants are arriving near the Polish border crossing of Kuznica from the Belarusian side. The ministry released a video showing Polish police warning people at the border: “Attention, attention, if you don’t follow the orders, force may be used against you.”
The situation has been building for months, but suddenly grew more tense as a large group of migrants appeared across the border from Kuznica nearly a week ago.
The EU accuses Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko of encouraging the migrants from the Mideast to breech the borders in retaliation for sanctions on his repressive rule. Belarus denies the allegations, but warned last summer that it will no longer stop migrants and refugees seeking to enter the 27-nation EU.
Many migrants are now stuck in makeshift camps in freezing weather as Poland has reinforced its border with 15,000 soldiers in addition to
border guards and police. Most are fleeing conflict, poverty or hopelessness in Syria and Iraq and hope to reach Germany or elsewhere in Western Europe.
Each day Polish authorities report new attempts by Belarusian forces to allegedly destroy border fences and push migrants across. Polish authorities reported Sunday that migrants who tried to cross in from Belarus attacked Polish police officers with stones.
In a separate incident earlier Sunday, 50 migrants broke through a border barrier by force near a different border village, Starzyna, police reported. Poland’s Border Guard agency said it has recorded over 33,000 illegal attempts to cross its border from Belarus so far this year, up from 120 last year.