Tuesday, November 23, 2021

Poland repatriation report
Hundreds of migrants are leaving Minsky

Thousands of refugees are trying to enter the European Union from Belarus via Poland. The Belarusian ruler Lukashenko should have smuggled them into Minsk. Now he is planning flights for their repatriation. However, the situation cannot be said to be aggravating.

According to Polish government sources, Belarus is said to have repatriated hundreds of refugees from the Middle East to their home countries. After at least one flight last week, another plane with 118 migrants took off from Minsk on Monday, said Stanisaw Jarin, spokesman for the Polish secret services coordinator, according to the PAP news agency. More flights are planned for this week.

“But this is no evidence that the Lukashenko regime is moving away from its strategic plan,” Zarin insisted to Polish television broadcaster TVP Info, which is close to the government. It is too early to see the repatriation on the part of Belarusian ruler Alexander Lukashenko as a step towards de-escalation. At the same time, there are indications that other migrants are being brought to the border of Poland. Their attempts to cross the border are becoming “more and more aggressive”. For weeks, thousands of migrants have been trying to get into the EU from Belarus across the borders of Poland or the Baltic states.

The Polish government and the European Union are accusing Belarusian ruler Alexander Lukashenko of targeting people from troubled regions to smuggle into the EU. An independent review of the situation at the border is also difficult as Poland had a state of emergency on 183 border communities in early September. Neither journalists nor human rights organizations are allowed to enter the exclusion zone, in which many refugees have already died in circumstances that are not clearly explained.