NS The European Union Poland has agreed new sanctions against Belarus targeting “all involved” in facilitating the transport of people to Belarus’s border with Poland, where thousands are trapped in makeshift camps in cold weather.
The EU accused Alexander Lukashenko’s regime of launching a “hybrid attack” against the bloc by allowing people from the Middle East, who are desperate to reach the EU, to fly into Minsk, then head for the Polish border.
EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said the decision of the 27 EU foreign ministers reflected “the determination by the EU to stand up for the means of migrants for political purposes”.
The list of people and entities vulnerable to asset freezes and travel bans is expected to be finalized in the coming weeks. This would include “people, airlines, travel agencies and everyone involved in this illegal push of migrants against our borders”, Borrell said.
The decision was announced as a column of people gathered on the Polish border going on for the second week,
Video footage showed people walking out of a forest where they were camping and making their way to the Kuznica border crossing. Accompanying the group were Belarusian police in riot gear. When they reached the border, they were parked behind razorwire fencing by Polish riot police.
The European Union has already imposed four rounds of sanctions on Belarusian officials and senior officials over last year’s controversial election and its subsequent brutal crackdown on peaceful protesters.
EU officials want to ensure that the new sanctions list is legally undisputed in order to reduce the risk of being prosecuted in the European Court of Justice. “We are all insisting on doing it tomorrow, but the reality is that tomorrow will probably come in two weeks,” a diplomat said before the meeting.
Diplomats are also discussing tightening economic sanctions against Belarus by expanding sanctions already targeting the tobacco and potash industries – both important sources of revenue for Lukashenko.
“We are far from the end of the spiral of sanctions,” said Germany’s Foreign Minister Heiko Maas. Belarus flag carrier Belavia is one of the airlines being targeted, and Maas called on other companies to follow the example of Turkish Airlines by restricting flights to the Belarusian capital.
“Those who should not expect stringent restrictions. The situation is so dramatic that I can no longer deny overflight rights or landing permissions in European territory,” he said.
Russian airline Aeroflot is believed to be unlikely to be included in the sanctions list, however. Poland and Lithuania hold Russian President Vladimir Putin responsible For border crisis. “He [Putin] With Mr Lukashenko politically driving this crisis, it is certain,” Lithuania’s Foreign Minister Gabrielius Landsbergis told reporters.
“Russia is using this crisis to destabilize the EU,” he said, describing migration as one of the most sensitive topics for the EU. “It’s an excellent weapon against us. And if we’re unable to make a decision, you can probably say, ‘Look, the EU is ineffective’ and that creates new fire inside the EU.”
With reports of Russian troops gathering near Russia’s border with Ukraine, Landsbergis suggested that the Kremlin might be preparing an attack. “It is very likely that Ukraine could be attacked when we are dealing with the situation on the Polish, Lithuanian and Belarusian borders,” he said. Landsbergis claimed that Belarus could also be attacked and replaced Belarusian border guards with Russian FSB agents, under the pretext of deeper cooperation between the two countries.
Landsbergis said Lithuania would be ready to help with any UN-organized repatriation of people to the Middle East, but denied return flights from its country.
An Iraqi official announced on Sunday that the country would conduct its first repatriation flight for people stranded on the border between Belarus and the United States. Poland, The flight will leave from Minsk on Thursday.
The official did not say how many people the flight would take to Iraq. According to figures from an Iraqi government, 571 of its citizens have requested “voluntary” repatriation, the official said.
Iraqis are believed to be outnumbered along the Belarus-Poland border. Last week an Iraqi Kurdish official estimated there were 8,000 people from that area at the border.
On Monday, Lukashenko said many of the people who camped on the border with Poland would be unwilling to return to Iraq.
“We are ready … to land them on planes that will take them back home,” Lukashenko said on television, addressing government officials. “But these are the people who, it must be said, are very stubborn: no one wants to go back. And it’s clear why: they have nowhere to go back.”
EU officials have held talks with countries in the Middle East to slow the flow of people, many of them from Iraq and Syria to the border with Europe. But that will not address the question of what to do with the thousands already trapped, in many cases denied entry to both Poland and Belarus.
Diplomats estimate that between 10,000 and 20,000 people are facing increasingly harsh conditions as temperatures drop in the border area.
In a highly unlikely scenario, Lukashenko also suggested that Belarus would be prepared to take people directly to Germany.
“If the Poles don’t give us a humanitarian corridor, we can take them to Munich on Belavia,” he said.