Russia and Belarus are organizing a new campaign against the influx of migrants to the European Union through the Polish border. This is how Minsk and Moscow are trying to destabilize the region, Polish Deputy Minister of Internal Affairs Maciej Wąsik says.
The hybrid migration crisis created by the Lukashenko regime has been ongoing since the summer of 2021. This time, the situation is “not as chaotic as two years ago,” but it is still worrying, Poland says.
“We are talking about an operation organized by Russian and Belarusian special services, which is becoming increasingly intense,” Wąsik explained.
The Polish Border Guard believes that the Belarusian services are a “criminal group that manages illegal migration” and “gets huge profits from it.” At the same time, on August 6, Latvia declared that the Belarusian authorities helped illegal migrants enter the country illegally.
“Belarusian authorities helped illegal immigrants overcome the fence by cutting the wire in a separate structure, and then put a hole in the fence to prevent the return of men who illegally entered Latvia to Belarus,” the State Border Service of Latvia said.
This year alone, 19,000 people tried to enter Poland from Belarus. For more than two years, self-proclaimed President Lukashenko has been facilitating the arrival of citizens of Africa and the Middle East at the border. The dictator also organizes provocations by migrants against Polish border guards.
With a hybrid crisis, Lukashenko is trying to take revenge on the European Union for sanctions after its repression against the Belarusian opposition and civil society, according to Poland and the Baltic States.
Cover: Reuters
