Polonia e Bielorussia alzano i toni: Verso la crisi umanitaria e politica di Carlo Coppola

https://www.internationalwebpost.org/contents/POLONIA_E_BIELORUSSIA_ALZANO_I_TONI_23780.html

Migrants stranded in Belarus reportedly attempted several times to force their way into Poland during the night: this was stated by Warsaw, which announced that it had reinforced the border as the European Union prepares to impose sanctions on Belarus over the crisis. The 27 ambassadors of the bloc agree that the growing number of migrants flying to Belarus in order to reach the EU border amounts to a “hybrid war” waged by President Alexander Lukashenko, thus providing a legal basis for new sanctions.

“Mr. Lukashenko … is unscrupulously exploiting people seeking refuge as hostages in his cynical power game,” German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas said on Twitter, referring to images from the Belarusian border, where asylum seekers are stranded without food or shelter, at risk of freezing. Maas stressed that the European Union cannot be blackmailed.

For its part, the European Union has accused Belarus of orchestrating a “hybrid attack” by pushing migrants across the border into Poland, paving the way for broader sanctions against Minsk in a crisis that threatens to set Russia and NATO against each other.

Moscow has taken the step of sending two nuclear-capable strategic bombers to patrol Belarusian airspace in a show of support for its close ally. In a closed-door meeting, Poland briefed NATO, which pledged its support.

Migrants from the Middle East, Afghanistan, and Africa trapped in Belarus have repeatedly attempted to enter Poland during the night, Warsaw said, announcing that it had been forced to reinforce the state border by deploying additional border troops.

The United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, Michelle Bachelet, former President of Chile, called on all states to de-escalate and resolve what she described as an “intolerable” crisis. “These hundreds of men, women, and children must not be forced to spend another night in freezing temperatures without adequate shelter, food, water, and medical care,” she commented.

The EU, which has repeatedly sanctioned Belarus for human rights violations, accuses Minsk of luring migrants from war-torn and impoverished countries and pushing them toward Poland in an attempt to sow chaos along Europe’s eastern frontier.

“We are facing a brutal hybrid attack on our borders. Belarus is a threat to migrants, cynically and shockingly weaponized,” said European Council President Charles Michel. The bloc’s 27 ambassadors agreed that this constituted a legal basis for further sanctions. “At the beginning of next week there will be an expansion of sanctions against Belarus,” European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen told journalists after meeting U.S. President Joe Biden in Washington. “We will look at the possibility of sanctioning those airlines that facilitate the trafficking of human beings to Minsk and then to the EU–Belarus border,” she added.

Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko and his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin, however, placed the blame on the EU. The Kremlin accused Europe of failing to live up to its humanitarian ideals and of attempting to “strangle” Belarus with plans to close part of the frontier. Moscow stated that it is unacceptable for the EU to impose sanctions on Belarus over the crisis.

In a telephone conversation on November 10, German Chancellor Angela Merkel asked Putin to exert pressure on the Belarusian authorities regarding refugees seeking to enter the European Union through that country. According to the Kremlin, Putin proposed discussing the migration crisis within the framework of contacts between EU member states and Minsk.