EU Welcomes Suspension Of Iraqi Flights To Belarus Amid Migrant Surge

By RFE/RL August 10, 2021

The European Union said on August 10 that it hopes for a stabilization of the migrant situation in Lithuania after Iraq suspended flights from Baghdad to Minsk.

In recent weeks, Lithuania, Latvia, and Poland have faced a surge of mostly Iraqi migrants crossing in from Belarus, prompting authorities in the EU member to beef up the border and start pushing back illegal migrants.

EU officials have said that migrant flows are being orchestrated by authoritarian leader Alyaksandr Lukashenka in retaliation for EU sanctions over his government's crackdown on the country's pro-democracy movement.

"We are pleased to see a very constructive attitude by the Iraqi partners and their constructive reaction," a spokesman for the European Commission -- the 27-member bloc's executive -- told reporters.

"We are quite concerned that Iraqi partners are aware how important this issue is for the EU and we hope that the situation will stabilize when it comes to the flights between Baghdad and Minsk," he said.

The Lithuanian parliament was due to debate on August 10 whether to build a high metal fence on its border with Belarus to stop migrants.

If approved by parliament, Lithuania would construct the four-meter-high fence topped with razor wire on 508 kilometers of the 670- kilometer border it shares with Belarus, at a cost of 152 million euros ($178 million), the Baltic News Service reported, citing the Lithuanian State Border Guard Service.

Parliament was also to debate whether to allow the Lithuanian military to patrol the border and temporarily restrict asylum-seekers to making their applications only at designated locations, such as border checkpoints or embassies, rather than at any point on Lithuanian territory.

Currently only Lithuanian frontier guards helped by a small contingent from EU's Frontex border agency are allowed to patrol the border.

Some 4,026 individuals have illegally crossed into Lithuania, a country of 2.8 million inhabitants, from Belarus this year, the Lithuanian Interior Ministry said on August 3, compared with 74 in total last year.

The Polish Border Guard said in a statement on August 9 that it had detained 349 illegal migrants crossing the Belarusian border since August 6. It said the migrants were probably from Iraq and Afghanistan.

The Polish Border Guard said in a statement on August 9 that it had detained 349 illegal migrants crossing the Belarusian border since August 6. It said the migrants were probably from Iraq and Afghanistan.

In 2020, the Border Guard detained 122 illegal migrants crossing the Belarusian border. So far this year, the number has reached nearly 900.

In Latvia, the Interior Ministry detained 218 migrants over the same August 6-9 period, mostly Iraqis.

Prime Minister Krisjanis Karin's office said on August 9 that he backs a proposal by the interior minister to declare a state of emergency at the Latvia-Belarus border.

Poland, the Baltic states, and EU officials say the migrant flows are being orchestrated by strongman Alyaksandr Lukashenka in retaliation for EU sanctions over his government's crackdown on the country's pro-democracy movement.

Poland says Belarus may also be sending migrants over the border in retaliation for Warsaw's decision last week to give refuge to Belarusian athlete Krystsina Tsimanouskaya after she refused to return home from the Tokyo Olympics.

EU ministers are slated to discuss the Belarusian border issue at an extraordinary meeting on August 18. The bloc has been trying to work with the government in Baghdad to stem the flow of Iraqi nationals, even as Minsk has pledged to increase direct flights and add more Iraqi cities.

In a nearly eight-hour press conference on August 9, Lukashenka struck a note of defiance against the West and opposition, denouncing international sanctions against his government.

"The illegal migration. No, we are not blackmailing anyone. We are not threatening anyone. You simply put us in such conditions that we have to react. And we are reacting, excuse us, in the best way we can," Lukashenka said.

August 9 marked the one-year anniversary of country's presidential election that extended Lukashenka's decades-long rule and sparked an unprecedented wave of protests amid allegations the vote was rigged.

Lukashenka reacted to the protests by unleashing a brutal crackdown. More than 32,000 people have been detained in an ever-widening sweep targeting the media, civil society, and any form of dissent.

Opposition leaders have been locked up or forced to flee, including Svyatlana Tsikhanouskaya, who left for Lithuania a day after the vote that supporters say she actually won.

With reporting by Baltic Times, Delfi, Reuters, and TASS

Source: https://www.rferl.org/a/poland-latvia -migrants-belarus-/31402056.html

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