In a major escalation between Minsk and Warsaw, there is currently a stand-off between migrants attempting to cross into Poland and the latter’s border police and security forces. Polish President Andrzej Duda used strong words to condemn the move by the Lukashenko government in Belarus of “attacking” the border in an “unparalleled manner”.
About 4,000 people are reportedly gathered on the border and many were filmed trying to break through the barbed wire as well. Humanitarian groups say they are living without adequate food, shelter, or medicine there.
Media quoted him thus: “We currently have a camp of migrants who are blocked from the Belarusian side. There are about 1,000 people there, mostly young men. These are aggressive actions that we must repel, fulfilling our obligations as a member of the European Union”
Lukashenko’s government is being accused by the European Commission of misleading migrants with promises of easy entry into the EU. Poland says that these are provocative moves by Belarus which could result in an “armed escalation”.
The European Commission has said that this is an “inhuman” and “gangster like approach” on part of Belarus. Meanwhile, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has proposed a deal between the EU and Belarus that aid could be provided to Belarus to host the migrants along the lines of the 2016 deal between EU and Turkey after which Turkey took back undocumented migrants who crossed into Greece.
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