EU accuses Belarus of “trafficking” migrants toward Poland’s border
European Union officials on Wednesday accused Belarus of state-sponsored “trafficking” of human lives by luring desperate migrants to the Polish border — the edge of the EU — where many are now stuck in makeshift camps in freezing weather.
As the crisis showed no sign of easing, an EU leader also said the bloc was, for the first time, considering the idea of funding the construction of a wall or some other barrier on its eastern border. That idea has been rejected before and still faces many political and humanitarian obstacles.
Polish authorities estimate that 3,000 to 4,000 migrants have gathered along its border with Belarus, with hundreds concentrated in one makeshift camp not far from the Kuznica crossing. Warsaw has bolstered security at the frontier, where it has declared a state of emergency.
Polish authorities have tweeted video of migrants, some using shovels and wire cutters, trying to break through a fence on the border to enter Poland.
The West has accused Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko of encouraging migrants from the Middle East to travel to his country and sending them toward EU members Poland, Lithuania and Latvia as a way to retaliate against the bloc for sanctions imposed on the authoritarian regime for its crackdown on internal dissent since a disputed election in 2020.
Belarus denies the allegations but has said it will no longer stop migrants and others seeking to enter the EU.
“From a distance, these events on the Polish-belarusian border may look like a migration crisis, but this is not a migration crisis. It is a political crisis triggered with the special purpose of destabilizing the situation in the European Union,” said Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki.
Steffen Seibert, a spokesman for German Chancellor Angela Merkel, said in Berlin that Minsk is engaged in “state-run smuggling and trafficking ... happening 100% at the expense of the people who are lured into the country with false promises.”
Poland says Russia bears some responsibility for the crisis, given its staunch backing of Lukashenko. Germany’s interior minister, Horst Seehofer, also accused Lukashenko of “using people’s fates — with the support of Russian President Vladimir Putin — to destabilize the West.”
Merkel spoke by phone with Putin on Wednesday. “I asked him to exert his influence on President Lukashenko, because people are being used here,” she said.
“They are victims of an inhuman policy, and something must be done against this,” Merkel said in Meseberg, near Berlin. Speaking before a meeting with Latvian and Portuguese leaders, Merkel thanked Poland, Lithuania and Latvia for protecting the EU’S external borders.
Latvian Prime Minister Krisjanis Karins added that “it is what I would call a statesponsored human trafficking, which is affecting directly my country, Lithuania and Poland.”
The Kremlin’s account of the call with Merkel said Putin proposed a discussion between “representatives of EU member states and Minsk.” It also said Putin and Merkel “agreed to continue the conversation.”
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov rejected suggestions by Morawiecki that Moscow has any responsibility in the crisis, calling them “absolutely irresponsible and unacceptable.” Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov also has suggested the EU give Belarus financial aid to stop the migrant flow.
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen met with President Joe Biden at the White House on Wednesday and said the White House was aiming to levy new sanctions on the Lukashenko regime by early December.
U.S. Treasury Department officials have begun working on the sanctions and are looking to unveil them as Europe moves forward with its own, a White House official said.
Von der Leyen said she also discussed with Biden the possibility of the U.S. and Europe levying sanctions against airlines that play a role in the influx of migrants through Belarus. Von der Leyen said they shared the assessment that “this is an attempt by an authoritarian regime to try to destabilize democratic neighbors. This will not succeed.”
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken, who met in Washington with Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba, said “the idea that Belarus would weaponize migration is profoundly objectionable.”
“We will continue to pressure Lukashenko and the regime, and we will not lessen our calls for accountability,” he added. Kuleba said Belarus “is a potential front line that should not be underestimated.”
European Council President Charles Michel met in Warsaw with Morawiecki in a gesture of solidarity, saying: “We are facing a hybrid, brutal, violent and unworthy attack, and we can only reply to this with firmness and unity, in accordance with our core values.”
Michel also said the EU is discussing the possibility of funding “physical infrastructure” on its external borders. The EU’S executive commission has long held that walls and barriers are not effective and has refused to fund them with money from the bloc. It would pay only for security cameras and surveillance equipment, not walls, fences and other physical infrastructure.
Now it is facing pressure by several member countries to do so, as Poland and Lithuania have moved ahead with plans to build high barriers of steel and razor wire.
Security on the Polish border has been reinforced, with about 15,000 soldiers deployed there along with border guards and police. Poland’s Defense Ministry has activated reserves from its Territorial Defense Force to support border guards.