Migrant crisis at the Belarus-EU border                    

                          

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The Story So Far

• There has been a sudden surge of migrants, including women and children, at the Belarus-Poland border, causing tensions to rise between the two countries.
• The migrants, estimated to be 2,000-4,000 in number, and mostly from West Asia, including Afghanistan, Iraq and Syria.
• They have made several attempts to cross over into Poland with the aim of seeking asylum in a European Union (EU) country.

 

THE GIST

• A sudden surge of migrants, including women and children, at the Belarus-Poland border, are causing tensions between the two countries.
• Poland and Lithuania, both of which have been at the receiving end of the migrant surge, has tightened its border security, to prevent unauthorised border crossings.

 

How did the migrants end up at the Polish border?

• Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko victory in the 2020 presidential polls, is widely perceived as fraudulent.
• This has triggered nation-wide protests by pro-democracy activists.
• Lukashenko unleashed a brutal crackdown, to detain and jail a dissident journalist.
• The EU responded to the human rights violations by imposing punitive sanctions on officials and entities linked to the Belarusian regime.
• Protesters fleeing repression were given refuge by Poland, and allowed to carry out anti-Lukashenko propaganda.
• Poland, therefore, views the migrant surge at its borders as Belarus’s retaliation against the sanctions.
• It has claimed that Belarus is waging a “hybrid war”, deploying unconventional methods to apply pressure on an adversary.
• Lithuania, too, has accused Belarus of “weaponising migrants” by pushing migrants into the forests along the border with the aim of unleashing chaos in the

How has Poland responded?

• Poland has tightened its border security, amassing 15,000 troops and creating a two-mile deep buffer zone to prevent unauthorised border crossings.

 

What are the geo-political ramifications?

• In a response to Poland’s troop build-up along its border with Belarus, Russia dispatched two strategic, long-range Tu-22M3 bombers to patrol the border region.
• It is a signal to the EU that Belarus enjoys the full backing of the Russian military.
• Russia has blamed the EU for the migrant crisis, arguing that it was EU’s refusal to accept asylum-seekers that is creating the crisis.

What next?

• With the EU set to impose further sanctions on Belarus, Poland determined to keep the migrants out, Belarus unwilling to take measures to aid the migrants camping out in the forests without food or water, and winter closing in, the fate of thousands of migrants remains dire.

https://www.thehindu.com/news/international/whats-the-migrant-crisis-at-the-belarus-eu-border/article37451144.ece?homepage=true.