Belarus-Poland border standoff leaves migrants suffering in the middle
Category: News & Politics
Via: perrie-halpern • 3 years ago • 22 commentsBy: Yuliya Talmazan, Andy Eckardt, Reuters, Associated Press and Alan Kaytukov contributed.
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
Poland and other European Union member states accuse Belarus of using migrants as pawns to create a new wave of mass migration into the bloc. At least 8 have died, according to the Associated Press.
Belarus is encouraging migrants to illegally cross into the E.U. in revenge for sanctions imposed over President Alexander Lukashenko's violent crackdown on last year's mass protests and wider human rights violations, European officials say.
Autocrat Lukashenko, whose government is propped up by the Kremlin, has denied engineering the crisis and instead blames the West.
In response Poland's right-wing government has strengthened the force of soldiers stationed at the border to 15,000 from 12,000.
The country's defense ministry shared a video on Twitter purporting to show the Belarusian side "intimidating" migrants by firing shots as people near the barbed-wire fence can be heard screaming. It was not clear how the ministry obtained the video, when it was filmed or whether anyone was hurt.
NBC News could not independently verify the video, and has reached out to the Belarusian defense ministry for comment.
Images also started to emerge showing injuries among migrants. A photo shared by Reuters shows Youssef Atallah, a migrant from Syria, displaying apparent facial injuries after he said he was beaten by Belarusian border guards.
Youssef Atallah, a migrant from Syria, pictured in the center for migrants in Bialystok, Poland.Marko Djurica / Reuters
Meanwhile, the Belarusian State Border Committee published videos and photos allegedly showing Kurdish migrants they say were beaten and injured by Polish security forces. The Polish defense ministry told NBC News in an email these were a "provocation" and part of a "disinformation campaign" to discredit Polish forces. NBC News has not verified the videos or photos.
German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas pointed the finger directly at Lukashenko on Wednesday, accusing the Belarusian leader of "ruthlessly using people seeking refuge as hostages for his cynical power game."
Maas called the images emerging from the Belarusian border "appalling."
"We will not abandon anyone who is in need," he said.
Many migrants have flown to Minsk on tourist visas before making their way to the border. Leonid Shcheglov / TASS via Getty Images
The U.N. refugee agency UNHCR called for an end to the "instrumentalization of migrants and refugees" to achieve political goals Tuesday, describing the situation as "deplorable."
U.N. human rights chief Michelle Bachelet said the rights of migrants should be of paramount concern.
"These hundreds of men, women and children must not be forced to spend another night in freezing weather without adequate shelter, food, water and medical care," she said in a statement on Wednesday.
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These migrants are not from Belarus or from Poland. Neither Belarus or Poland created this situation. The United Nations pointing fingers of blame at Poland and Belarus is only a political attempt to deflect attention away from the UN failures.
These migrants are not innocent bystanders. The migrants intentionally, deliberately, and maliciously created the problem. The migrants weren't invited to be there.
Your depth of vision is wanting ...
Are you attempting to make the claim that Russia forced these migrants into Belarus? No, the migrants themselves intentionally, deliberately, and maliciously created the problem.
The following is from Polygraph.info, a fact-checking website produced by Voice of America (VOA):
Russia Spreads Disinfo About Belarus-Poland Migrant Standoff
Amid rising tensions from a refugee standoff at the Polish-Belarusian border, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov accused European countries of having “double standards” on the treatment of refugees.
“Yesterday, in some political science discussions, they asked: Why, when refugees came from Turkey to the European Union, the EU allocated funding so they stay on the territory of the Republic of Turkey?” Lavrov asked at a news conference.
“Why is it also impossible to help Belarusians who have certain needs so that refugees, whom Poland and Lithuania do not want to let on their territory, live in normal conditions?”
Lavrov said Western countries, particularly NATO members, were directly responsible for the conditions that lead these migrants to flee to Europe.
“Respecting international humanitarian law, one must understand that this also implies respect for people who have become refugees through the fault of the West, first of all, which unleashed aggressive wars in the Middle East and North Africa.”
Lavrov’s narrative is misleading.
First, the situation now between Poland and Belarus was deliberately caused by Belarus’ belligerent dictator, Alexander Lukashenko .
Belarus does not border any Middle Eastern country, nor have the migrants who have arrived in Belarus come overland. Turkey, on the other hand, borders Syria and Iraq and is directly affected by neighboring crises.
Refugees can reach the Turkey by land rather than flying to Ankara or Istanbul. Not so for Belarus. In recent months, Belarusian “tourist” agencies have been advertising flights to Minsk from places like Baghdad, and granting tourist visas. An investigation by Reuters found that smugglers in Iraq have been charging would-be migrants between $10,000 and $12,000 to get visas and air tickets to Minsk.
Once in Minsk, migrants have been driven to the border. This flow has increased considerably, and videos show migrants who are effectively homeless waiting in Minsk. New video has emerged apparently showing Belarusian border guards forcibly pushing migrants across a thin fence on the border with Poland.
Russia’s ally in Syria, the Bashar al-Assad regime, has also helped increase the flow of migrants, using the state airline Cham Wings to fly people from Damascus to Minsk.
Earlier this year, Lukashenko all but publicly admitted he would open the border between Belarus and his EU neighbors. But Belarus is not on the normal refugee route to Germany, where most of the migrants wish to seek asylum.
Lavrov’s claim that the West bears sole responsibility for the dire conditions in these Middle Eastern and North African countries is also misleading.
Some major NATO members – Germany and France – opposed the U.S. invasion of Iraq in 2003. What’s more, since then many countries, including Russia and its ally Iran, have played key roles in regional conflicts.
The most egregious problem has been Syria, a major source of refugees since 2015. The war in Syria began in 2011 with protests against the Assad regime, which responded with a military crackdown. Since the uprising turned into a full-fledged civil war, the Assad regime has been backed by its Iranian and Russian allies.
Since 2015, the Russian air force has been actively involved in bombing campaigns that left thousands homeless and with little choice but to flee . Russia also backed the military of the Libyan warlord Khalifa Haftar , which prolonged that country’s civil war. Russia’s ally Iran has also supported sectarian militias in Iraq for years.
You seem to have bit hard on Lavrov's bait.
There wouldn't be a Belarus-Poland migrant standoff if the migrants had not intentionally, deliberately, and maliciously created the situation.
The migrants aren't the victims; the migrants are the cause of the standoff. The migrants created the tensions. It is Poland and Belarus who are the victims.
If Poland and Belarus are the victims of anything, It is their own authoritarian governments and Russia's goal of dismantling both the EU and NATO.
Predigested political pabulum doesn't address the fact that the migrants have created the standoff. The problem isn't political squirrels. The problem is that migrants deliberately, intentionally, and maliciously created the situation.
The migrants intentionally placed themselves there. The migrants aren't there by accident. The United Nations did not relocate these migrants as refugees. Poland and Belarus did not invite the migrants to be there. The migrants are not the victims; the migrants are the cause.
Ah yes, those awful migrants ...
The migrants in the photo placed themselves there in that situation. The migrants in the photo are not there by accident.
Belarus bussed them there.
What's the difference in attitude between these migrants and the very rich? Both expect to go where they please, do whatever they want to do, and society will protect them and give them what they want.
These migrants aren't in Belarus by accident. These migrants intentionally, deliberately, and maliciously placed themselves in Belarus. And these migrants expect society to give them what they want the same way the very rich expects society to give them what they want.
It's the migrant attitude that has created the problem. And now the migrants are whining about not getting what they want the same way the very rich people whine about not getting what they want.
... and your whining is getting you what other than "intentionally, deliberately, and maliciously" posting Pavlovian propaganda 'insights'?
... and you are attempting to convince everyone to chase political squirrels rather than recognize the cause of the problem.
The migrants, themselves, created the standoff. The migrants are the cause.
... and Jews were at fault for the pogroms and caused the final solution. The migrants caused nothing, they are being used as propaganda puppets by one and all bent upon causing disruption and 'all' includes you.
The Jews weren't migrants. The Jews were already part of Polish society. The standoff at the Polish-German border was not created by Jews. The Nazi migrants were displacing Jews in Polish society. The Nazis invaded Poland and demanded to be given what they wanted.
How is the attitude of the migrants causing the standoff at the Poland-Belarus border different than the attitude of Nazi invaders of Poland?
The problem with rewriting history to make obtuse arguments is that the lessons of history are lost. Auschwitz–Birkenau was located near Krakow, Poland and not in Germany. The other five extermination camps were located in Poland and not in Germany. The Nazis intruded into Polish society, disrupted Polish society, and changed Polish society in ways that were certainly not acceptable.
Please, explain why these migrants on the Poland-Belarus border are not doing what the Nazis did. Are these migrants trying to intrude into Polish society, disrupt Polish society, and change Polish society to get what they want?
How is what the migrants in Belarus trying to do any different than what migrants on our own southern border are trying to do? Aren't the migrants jumping our borders intruding into our society, disrupting our society, and trying to change our society to get what they want? The Nazis jumped the Polish border and what followed is the history being invoked to garner sympathy for border jumpers?
You invoked the Nazis. How obtuse is that? History is not on the side of the argument you are attempting to make.
You tell me, and after that do digress on your disdain for migrants. The same conditions led to 3.2million migrants fleeing Europe including my mother with my eldest new born brother at the end of WWII.
There is a difference between immigrants seeking permission to enter a country and migrants jumping the border.
Really? I visited it twice and all the time I thought I was in Germany ... /S
This is 'fun':
14 Aug 2021
And here is the Poilish side of the story:
The Communists seized and nationalized property in Poland. So, claims for restitution aren't limited to Jews and the Holocaust. And Poland's new restitution law affects everyone's claims, not just claims made by Jews.
The claims of antisemitism are intended to push political buttons just like claiming migrant invaders are the same as Polish Jews. The facts don't support either political argument.
The USA is not the only place with this problem