Iraq at the Polish border

How Warsaw copes with the influx of Middle Eastern refugees from Belarus

In recent days, about 350 people detained about 350 people near the border with Belarus, crossing the border illegally. Does the Lithuanian scenario of Lukashenkovsky “blackmail by immigrants” are waiting for Poland?

The largest group of foreigners, Polish border guards detained 85 people last Saturday, mainly citizens of Iraq and Afghanistan.

According to the statistics of the Polish border service, since the beginning of the year, 871 foreigners were detained on the border with Belarus, while for the whole last year there have been 114 such cases.

According to the deputy head of the Ministry of Internal Affairs and the Polish administration, Matsuya Vonzik, the reason for the experience in the last days of attempts to cross the Polish border - the revenge of Minsk for the help of Warsaw by the Belarusian athlete Kristina Timanovskaya.

Why did Lukashenko choose Vilnius from the very beginning, not Warsaw? Stimulation of the flow of refugees through Lithuania is much easier. The border with Belarus is "this is the only part of the border of Poland, completely protected by the fence." “On other boundaries, such fortifications were either absent or dismantled,” emphasizes Professor Vitold Klaus, an immigration researcher and a member of the Board of the Association of Legal Assistance engaged in refugees. On the Polish side of the border is a wide plowed strip that allows border guards to easily install places of illegal intersection. There are many natural barriers that are not on the Lithuanian-Belarusian site. “If we compare the border of Belarus with Poland ( with the Belarusian-Lithuanian border. - Ed. ), Lithuania is simply absent from Lithuania, that now Vilnius is trying to change his best,” says Klaus.

In addition, the Belarusian authorities are closer to transport immigrants from Minsk to the border with Lithuania, and not with Poland.

“Lithuania is much smaller than Poland, and for Lithuania, such a tributary has become a political shock.

I think Lukashenko instinctively acted just according to this logic, ”says Pavel Usov, who lives in Warsaw, Belorussian political scientist.

REFERENCE
Flights from Iraq to Minsk are operated by the State Air Air Airways and Fly Baghdad, a total of six flights from Baghdad to Minsk per week. It was also reported that from August, direct flights from three more cities of Iraq will open to Minsk: Suleimania, Basra and Erbil. According to the flights of airlines, flights from these cities were canceled, but they are present in the seasonal schedule of flights of Minsk Airport.
On August 7, the Iraq civil aviation department reported the suspension of all passenger flights to Belarus for an indefinite period. Despite this, according to the Flightradar24 service, as well as the Minsk airport, Boeing 738 Fly Baghdad landed in the capital of Belarus on the morning of August 9, and Boeing 777 Iraqi Airways arrived in Minsk on August 10 at 12:28. Previous flights arrived from Baghdad to Minsk on August 6, 5 and 4.
Given the capacity of the airlines that use the airlines in this direction, more than 700 passengers could arrive on two flights of the air traffic, and over the last month, more than 8 thousand people could arrive from Iraq with these flights.

Despite the multiple increase in the number of illegal immigrants on the border with Belarus, these figures are uncritical for Poland. So, in 2013, more than 15 thousand applications for refugee status were submitted in Poland - primarily from Chechens. “Several hundred people who crossed the border are a small group for our country, we have more experience and practice with immigrants than in the Baltic countries,” Klaus believes.

Nevertheless, so far the main groups of refugees in Poland were residents of the Caucasus or citizens of neighboring states, Belarus and Ukraine. From citizens of Iraq or Afghanistan came only single applications for international security.

“We began to notice an increase in the number of Afghans about a year ago. Until now, the routes of their immigration have not passed through the territory of Poland. As a rule, citizens of the Middle Eastern countries crossed the southern border of Poland, with the Czech Republic or Slovakia, usually came from Bulgaria or Romania. But again, these were small groups of people, ”Claus emphasizes.

Usov believes that Lukashenko simply does not have enough resources to blackmail Poland like Lithuania: “Poland Minsk, of course, will not be able to destabilize. But if the Poles are not gestured, if they give slack and take migrants, then the stream will increase, ”the political scientist emphasizes.

Nevertheless, the issue of immigrants may be problematic for Warsaw. So far, border guards check the detainees on the Covid-19, establish their identity, the country of origin and age, and then, by court decision, are placed in special closed guarded centers. However, at the same time, they may contain only about 600 people. Until now, people have not been delayed for a long time in such centers: first of all, because it is easier to deport a citizen of Russia or Ukraine to a country of origin than Iraqis.

Perhaps it will be easier for officials to recognize one of the status of security for newcomers than to try to return them to their homeland.

Chechen refugee and member of the Nomad Women Foundation sews protective masks for hospitals. Gdansk, Poland. Photo: Reuters

Therefore, Poland should think about the expansion of protected centers or the construction of new ones. So far, Warsaw is trying to show that the border is carefully guarded, and border guard has been reporting to the media about the new detentions of illegal immigrants every day.

“These people would not cross the border illegally if the border could be crossed legally,” Claus emphasizes, indicating the ECHR of the ECHR. Warsaw consciously blocked the submission of documents for refugee status, not allowing refugees from Chechnya, Syria and Tajikistan to the country. Pandemics limited opportunities: Poland closed the recovery of a shelter on the border for everyone, with the exception of Belarusian citizens.

“But migration processes have not gone anywhere. If we are talking about citizens of Afghanistan and Iraq, Poland has a moral obligation to help them. Poland took part in wars in these states, we simply ruined these people of their countries, ”Klaus is sure.

Igor Isaev , especially for the "new",

Warsaw

Chronicle
Lukashenko tried to send migrant flows to the EU in revenge for sanctions, but Baltic closed the borders. Now refugees are raving to Russia
At the end of May, the European Union imposed on the next sanctions against Belarus due to the forced landing of the Ryanair flight in Minsk. Alexander Lukashenko did not answer “symmetrically” and said that now it would simply weaken control of migration and drug trafficking on the border of Belarus and the EU.
A few days later, the influx of illegal migrants in Lithuania grew ten times. The migration crisis began-the number of illegally crossing the border of Lithuania by Belarus has already exceeded 4.1 thousand, which is 55 times more than last year, and 110-than in 2019. According to the Lithuanian Foreign Ministry, more than two -thirds illegally crossed the border - Iraqis, most of which are Kurds.
At the same time, the European Border Agency Frontex recorded how some groups of illegal migrants move to the border, accompanied by a car of Belarusian power structures. According to Mediazons, Scanner Project and LRT, in Belarus there is an organized system for the export of migrants to the Lithuanian border and a business built on the transfer of citizens from the Middle East to Belarus. Lithuania’s authorities accused Minsk of “hybrid aggression” and began to return refugees back across the border. The "New" tells how other countries try to stop the stream of migrants organized by Belarus.
August 7 - Iraq suspended all passenger flights to Belarus for an indefinite period. This affected both the "Iraqi Airlines" and other national carriers. On the same day, the head of the Department of Migration of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Lithuania Evelina Gudzinskaite promised that illegal migrants who agreed to leave the country voluntarily will pay 300 euros. According to her, the money will be given in cash when landing on a plane flying out of the country.
August 9 - from Minsk to Baghdad flew out the first export flight with Iraqis on board. There were 80 people on it. Also, this plane was delivered to Iraq to the body of a man who died while trying to cross the Belarusian-Lithuanian border. 320 people were taken out of only two flights (August 9 and 10), according to the Iraq Foreign Ministry.
August 10 - Latvia announced the introduction of emergency regime from August 11 to November 10 in border areas and Daugavpils. This allowed border guards to return illegal migrants to Belarus using force and special equipment. Also in the territories where the emergency operates, they have stopped accepting applications for the provision of refugee status or alternative status. On this day, when trying to cross the border, the border guards of Latvia detained 77 people. At night, when the emergency mode began to operate, 56 people were not allowed into the country. In Lithuania, not a single case of crossing the border was recorded and returned to 70 migrants to Belarus.
August 10, evening - riots began in the Lithuanian camp for migrants Rudninkai. According to the Ministry of Internal Affairs, there are about 400 migrants, crossing the border from Belarus. 20 people fled from the camp, but later they were detained and returned back.
On the same day, the border guards of the FSB of the Russian Federation detained 19 refugees in the Smolensk region who crossed the Belarusian-Russian border. According to the service, the Russian tried to carry four Citizens of Syria and one citizen of Egypt in his car. Near the red hill of the Smolensk region, the security forces also detained 14 residents of the Central Asian republics (their citizenship was not specified). At the same time, the EU authorities reported that the flow of migrants became less intense after the suspension of Iraq of all flights to Belarus.
August 11 - Poland announced strengthening control on the border with Belarus. “There are actions there to protect it stronger than before. There are trends that have not been previously observed, if we talk about border crossings, ” said Peter Müller, spokesman for the country's government. Border guards from this country noted an increase in the influx of illegal migrants from Belarus by several times. Over the current year, they already detained 871 illegal migrants on the Belarusian section of the border, while for the entire 2020 there were 122.
Maria Efimova, "New"