Using human lives to blackmail the governments of rival nations is as old as human civilization. In recent years, however, countries such as Turkey, and now the former Soviet republic of Belarus, have taken this concept to a new level – the weaponization of poor and under-educated and unskilled refugees from the Middle East and Sub-Saharan Africa, most of whom are fleeing their homes in the hope of finding a better life in Europe.
In recent months, the totalitarian government of Belarus has tried to manufacture a migrations crisis on the borders of Poland and Lithuania; Minsk’s response to Western sanctions after the country’s KGB violently sacked down on pro-democracy protests in August and September 2020, following a rigged election that handed the country’s long-serving dictator, Alexander Lukashenko, a new term in office.
On November 10, the European Union accused Belarus of mounting a “hybrid attack” by pushing migrants across the border into Poland. These migrants, which were allegedly lured to Belarus with a false promise of free passage by unsanctioned “travel agencies” in the Middle East, Afghanistan and Africa have found themselves in the Belarus of Lukashenko, a man who has no intention of allowing the refugees to stay, but he is more than willing to assist them in violating Poland and the EU’s borders by sparking a migrant crisis.
The European Union, which has repeatedly sanctioned Belarus for human rights abuses, has accused Minsk of drawing in migrants from war-torn and impoverished countries and then pushing them into Poland.
Western members of the UN Security Council have condemned Belarus for the escalating crisis. In a strongly-worded statement, the West accused Belarus of using the migrants to destabilize the European Union’s eastern border.
Lukashenko said his country would have to respond if the EU imposed a new round of sanctions. He later hinted that he would cut off gas supplies to Europe if new sanctions were imposed.
Russia, Belarus’ lone ally in the crisis, sharply criticized the West for backing Poland’s handling of the migrants, with the Kremlin accusing Europe of failing to live up to its own humanitarian ideals and trying to “strangle” Belarus with plans to close part of the frontier. Moscow said it was unacceptable for the EU to impose sanctions on Belarus over the crisis.
