Graphic by Laura Hinojosa ‘23
By Amelia Luo ’23
Global Editor
In hopes of crossing into the European Union, thousands of migrants from Belarus are trapped on the Polish-Belarusian border in makeshift tents under freezing temperatures, according to reports from NPR. Authorities from the Polish side have estimated that there are about 3,000 to 4,000 migrants who are currently gathering around the border. In an attempt to break through the border, some are using tools such as wire cutters and shovels, according to CNN.
Belarus’ border marks the edge of the EU. As reported by the Associated Press, the EU is considering funding a barrier on its border. Belarus’ three neighboring states — Lithuania, Poland and Latvia — have plans to build high fences of steel and razor wire on their own borders, according to Al-Jazeera. Poland declared a state of emergency and put up higher security measures on its border. On Oct. 29, Poland’s parliament passed legislation to build a wall on its border with Belarus by next summer. The wall, equipped with motion sensors and a monitoring system, is 18 feet (5.5m) tall and estimated to cost the equivalent of $407 million, according to BBC News. The Polish government has also reinforced its border with 15,000 soldiers along with border guards and a police force, the Associated Press reported. Migrants who entered Poland successfully have been detained.
“[Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko] and the regime’s response has been very violent,” former EU Ambassador and Visiting Professor in International Relations Natalie Sabanadze commented. “In a way, I wouldn’t say [it] surprised the EU, [it] annoyed the EU because they were actually in the process of sewing relations with Belarus. They thought Lukashenko was turning around a little bit, [they have just lifted the sanctions], and things were going slowly [back] to normal.” Sabanadze continued, “What’s more important from the European point of view is because Belarus is right on the border of the EU. So [the crisis] began to touch the EU as well.”
“What is happening now is considered by the EU as a deliberate hybrid attack … on security. It’s aimed at the stabilization of at least two European Member States, Lithuania and Poland. [It’s] instrumentalizing foreign refugees to destabilize the situation [within the EU],” Sabanadze explained.
According to the Associated Press, Steffen Seibert, a spokesman for German Chancellor Angela Merkel, accused Belarus of intentionally putting pressure on its border by trafficking migrants with state-sponsored action. Seibert suggested that Belarus attracted migrants from the Middle East and Asia into Belarus with “false promises.” The EU is seeing this action as a retaliation against the economic sanctions imposed upon condemning Belarus for its crackdown on domestic dissent. Sabanadze agreed with this account. She suggested that the sanction goes back to the Belarusian presidential election that was “completely rigged by Lukashenko … who is often described as the last dictator of Europe.” The Belarus government denied this allegation repeatedly, but also stated that Belarus would not stop migrants from entering the EU.
On Nov. 14, Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki urged the North Atlantic Treaty Organization to take “concrete steps” towards the migrant crisis on the Polish-Belarusian border. Morawiecki also suggested that the Polish-Belarusian border crisis is not a simple migration crisis, but may be politically motivated with the intention of “destabilizing the situation in the European Union.”
“The migrant crisis seems to me like Lukeshenko’s attempt to have his cake and eat it too,” Madhavi Rao ’24, a history major currently taking a course on Russian politics, said. “Under his leadership, despite protests by the people, Belarus has kept close to Russia and Putin. This, along with allegations of fraudulent elections and Lukashenko’s autocratic rule, have caused the EU and NATO to impose sanctions on the country. However, rather than facing these consequences, Lukashenko has chosen to create a migrant crisis along the border with Poland and Lithuania as a way of pressuring the EU to remove its sanctions. Lukashenko is using people’s lives as pawns in his proxy war with the EU.”
“[Lukashenko] would not have dared to do this without Russian backing. So, in fact, [this] is something that is masterminded by Putin via Lukashenko,” Sabanadze said. “[The migrants] are being taken to the border, promising different things, completely unaware … what [they] were getting [themselves into]. It’s a catastrophic humanitarian situation. Belarus is very cold. There are women. There are children. There are pregnant women. They’re treated horribly from all sides,” Sabanadze continued. “These are all human tragedies. They’re being mistreated and used in this way. It is pure instrumentalization and use of people in despair as a weapon to destabilize the EU.”
“I think, apart from the kind of security dimension of this story, there is a very clear humanitarian dimension of this story. [The humanitarian side is] a little bit overlooked or less stressed in the official communication, [but] that is something that needs to be done,” Sabanadze said. “I think the EU, [being] true to its values, has to intervene to ease the situation on the ground.”
As reported by BBC News, the United Nations stated that at least eight migrants have died on the Belarus border. As the area approaches winter and temperatures continue to drop, one 14-year-old boy was reported to have frozen to death on Nov. 12, according to InfoMigrants.
“I think [the EU] needs to do better,” Sabanadze said. “The Eastern European Member States are particularly resistant to migration, [especially] in this case, because this is basically characterized as a hybrid attack. [Poland and other nations bordering Belarus] are in the mode of self-defense.”
“Poland, Lithuania and the West are not completely free of blame either, in my opinion,” Rao said. “They have been put in a difficult position, but during the time of peril, they are choosing to allow innocent migrants [to] pay the price. It seems to me that, once more, it is the regular people who are caught between the large forces of the East and the West.”