'Direct attack': European Union accuses Belarus of using migrants as political weapon

Brussels, Belgium

The European Union has accused Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko of orchestrating the arrival of thousands of people at the borders of Lithuania, Latvia, and Poland in retaliation for sanctions imposed on the former Soviet republic.

Condemning the ''aggressive behavior'' and ''direct attack'' as an attempt to destabilise the bloc, it said Belarus was pushing asylum seekers across its border.

Interior ministers of the 27-nation EU said in a statement to be issued after an emergency meeting that Belarus was seeking to "instrumentalise human beings for political purposes".

“This aggressive behavior … is unacceptable and amounts to a direct attack aimed at destabilizing and pressurizing the EU,” said a statement by Slovenia, which holds the bloc’s rotating presidency until the end of the year, after emergency talks among the bloc’s interior ministers.

The issue has become more acute in the light of the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan that was completed on Sunday. Many Afghans are trying to flee the country, fearing reprisals.

EU member states are nervous about a replay of Europe's 2015-16 migration crisis when the chaotic arrival of more than a million people from the Middle East stretched security and welfare systems and fuelled support for far-right groups.

The ministers, without direct reference to Afghanistan, said there was "a need to strengthen the entire external border" of the EU to prevent illegal crossings in the future.

So far this year, more than 4,100 asylum-seekers, most of them from Iraq, have illegally crossed from Belarus into Lithuania. That’s 50 times more than during all of 2020. They’re being sheltered in temporary camps across the Baltic EU member.

Poland said Wednesday it had deployed nearly 1,000 troops to its border with Belarus to help border guards cope with a surge of migrants, again mostly from Iraq, who were trying to enter the country.

The migrant movements spiked dramatically after the EU slapped sanctions on Belarus officials.

Many of the migrants were believed to have arrived in Belarus by plane on commercial flights from Iraq. Those flights have stopped for now, perhaps in part due to the EU’s threat to impose visa restrictions on Iraqi citizens and officials.

Still, Lithuania’s border guard released video footage on Wednesday which it said reveals that migrants are being pushed across the border into EU territory by Belarus riot police. Another video showed several people cross into Lithuania and immediately return to Belarus to be filmed by Belarus officials.

After talks with Lithuanian Prime Minister Ingrida Simonyte on Wednesday, EU Parliament President David Sassoli accused Lukashenko of “exploiting these poor people, men and women.”

“I have seen these outrageous actions when officials push people across the border. It is both an issue of human rights, and also a question of protecting the border of the EU,” Sassoli said. “It is an organized activity of the Lukashenko regime.”

The United Nations refugee agency UNHCR has said it is "deeply concerned" by border pushbacks and the Lithuanian Red Cross said it doubted they meet countries' obligations under international treaties on human rights.

Ylva Johansson, who is responsible for migration and asylum in the EU's executive Commission, called on member states on Wednesday to ramp up admission quotas for Afghans in need of protection, particularly for women and girls.

(With inputs from agencies)