Between Poland and Belarus: water cannons against freezing migrants

In between are the migrants. In front of them are two walls, even if they are not yet made of bricks. Tension is very high on the border between Belarus and Poland where thousands of people have been stationed for days. Poland rejects migrants who would like to enter the European Union and opposes them with barbed wire and the military who have arrived to shoot water cannons. The wall on the other side is the firm will of Lukashenko’s Belarus to let these people press on the European border, in an area where temperatures are low during the day and widely below freezing at night. At least 11 of the people on the border died.

In the last 24 hours, clashes have increased with the migrants throwing stones at the Polish border police. Water cannons were used to disperse the crowds pressing along the border. According to Brussels, it was the Belarusian regime that voluntarily provoked the crisis in order to put pressure on the EU. It is in fact the Belarusian police to escort migrants to the European border which is the Polish border, but also that of the Baltic republics.

The 12 thousand men of the army deployed in Poland also used tear gas to stop people trying to cross the border, on the other hand the Belarusian forces prevent them from trying to turn back. In no man’s land, migrants remain, without shelter and with little food. European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen spoke of Minsk’s “unacceptable” exploitation of migrants.

The exports of Ispi, the Institute for International Political Studies, explain that land Belarusian authorities reportedly triggered the crisis in response to international sanctions “For the violent repression of the protests following the presidential elections of 9 August 2020”. Getting the migrants to arrive would be a calculation. «The Minsk strategy, they argue in Warsaw, is clear: in recent months, flights from Turkey, Afghanistan, Iraq and the United Arab Emirates to Belarus have increased. The airline advertisements suggest that access to Europe is within reach from Minsk. Instead, once they land, migrants are led to the border, either in vans or on foot. And here left to themselves ».

On the other hand, Poland is accused by many of summary rejections even for those who cross the border and would have the right to seek asylum. “Warsaw has erected a barbed wire fence along the border and, with Belarus refusing to let them return, migrants find themselves stranded in the forests where temperatures drop below freezing at night …Many in Brussels and other European capitals suspect that the Morawiecki government is exploiting the affair for internal propaganda. On the one hand, the Polish executive refuses Community aid to demonstrate in the eyes of its public opinion that it is capable of defending the national territory, while on the other it can continue to push back at the border in violation of international law “

Poland has announced that it is ready to build a wall on the border with Belarus. The EU treaties allow this, even if Brussels has said it will not finance such a work. Therefore, there is not only the wall on the border with Mexico that Trump was propagating. Europe has miles of electrified walls or barriers erected at the borders. There would be at least 63 barriers according to data published in November 2020 in a study carried out by the Dutch think tank Transnational Institute, the Delàs Center for Peace Studies of Barcelona and the German group Stop Arms Trade.

The data are reported byActed. Four meters of barbed wire in height for 175 kilometers in the wall built in 2015 by Viktor Orbàn on the border between Hungary and Serbia. There are also some on the borders of Slovenia, Austria, Macedonia and in that of Bulgaria with Turkey. Estonia has a wall on the Russian border, Greece still with it Turkey which in turn has a wall on the border with Iran, Iraq and Syria.

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