Belarus halts migration cooperation with EU
KYIV: Belarus on Monday retaliated to the European Union (EU) sanctions by halting cooperation on stemming illegal migration and denying entry to EU officials.
The EU on Thursday slapped new bruising economic sanctions on Belarus over last month’s diversion of a passenger jet to arrest a dissident journalist.
The sanctions target the country’s top export items, including potash — a common fertilizer ingredient, petroleum products and tobacco industry exports.
Belarus’ authoritarian president, Alexander Lukashenko, has denounced the EU sanctions as part of a “hybrid war” waged by the West against Belarus.
On Monday, the Foreign Ministry said that Belarus would move to suspend a readmission agreement with the EU that is intended to stem illegal migration.
The announcement follows Lukashenko’s warning that his country will no longer try to stem a flow of illegal migrants from other countries to the European Union.
“We note with deep regret that the forced suspension of the agreement will have a negative impact on co-operation with the EU in the field of combating illegal migration and organised crime,” the Foreign Ministry said.
Earlier this month, officials in Lithuania accused
Belarus of opening the doors for migrants to cross their shared 680-kilometer (420-mile) border. Most of the migrants are believed to come from the Middle East.
The Belarusian Foreign Ministry said on Monday that the government will also impose a travel ban on unspecified EU officials who were involved in drating the sanctions against Belarus, recall its envoy to the EU for consultations and ask the EU representative in Minsk, Dirk Schuebel, to leave the country.
In addition to that, Belarus will suspend its participation in the EU’S Eastern Partnership programme, which was intended to strengthen cooperation with several ex-soviet nations.
Belarus has been rocked by months of protests fueled by Lukashenko’s reelection to a sixth term in an August 2020 election that was widely seen as rigged. Authorities responded to the demonstrations with a massive crackdown that saw more than 35,000 people arrested and thousands beaten by police.
Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya, the main opposition candidate in the August election who was forced to leave the country ater the vote under official pressure, criticized the government’s move to halt the country’s involvement in the Eastern Partnership and said her team will continue to cooperate closely with the EU.