Hostages of someone else’s ambitions

Poland, Lithuania and Latvia use migrants from Africa and the Middle East to get new weapons and intimidate their own citizens

Over three years, more than 50 cases of refugee deaths have been registered on the Belarusian territory near the borders with the EU countries. Hundreds more tortured and beaten people thrown through the barriers to Belarus have been saved thanks to the personal involvement of Belarusian border guards, doctors and local residents. Why are Belarus’ neighbours acting so ruthlessly and what motivates them?

They do not feel sorry for anyone

Refugees maimed by European security forces on the border with Belarus have submitted appeals to the UN and the International Organisation for Migration calling on them to stop the violence and protect them. However, no response has been received so far. Meanwhile, the situation is taking on a terrifying scale.
The Belteleradiocompany’s TV News Agency has recently presented a documentary with the telling title Inhumans that features migrants who suffered at the hands of the security forces of Poland, Latvia and Lithuania.
Each subsequent story is scarier than the previous one. A pregnant woman from Somalia was beaten with batons by the Latvian military and was left to die at the border — the baby could not be saved, but doctors from Belarus’ Verkhnedvinsk miraculously brought the woman back to life. Another story is about the sisters from the Congo who were forcedly pushed into the Belarusian territory by the security forces using a stun gun. Just a couple of weeks ago, the Polish police unleashed dogs on five migrants from Syria, accompanying them with shots. When the unfortunate people could no longer move, three of them were thrown onto the Belarusian side of the border. It is not known what happened to the other two…
According to Anatoly Boyashov, an analyst at the Belarusian Institute for Strategic Research (BISR), international migration has become a serious problem for the European Union countries, “Historically, this has been facilitated by the purposeful attraction of cheap labour from abroad by the leading EU states. This topic has been used for a long time to build business, create careers, and start new political parties. The flip side of the coin is the problems of increased crime, social parasitism, interethnic communication, as well as security threats.”
The topic of refugees became relevant for Poland and the Baltic States during the coronavirus pandemic. “After the introduction of border crossing restrictions by the EU countries, the flows of illegal immigrants shifted from the southern to the eastern EU borders. Due to the fact that the route through Ukraine to Bulgaria, Cyprus and Greece was fraught with additional financial risks, carriers came up with alternative routes to get to Germany. The business, which relied on migrants of the first waves, shifted from the southern EU countries to the eastern ones, especially to Poland,” the expert clarified. “As a result, from 2021 to 2023, Poland’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs issued about 250,000 visas to arrivals from disadvantaged countries in Africa and Asia. Yet, the refugees did not stay in Poland. Due to the fact that multiple Schengen visas were used to travel illegally to Germany, the large-scale issuance of visas raised questions to Warsaw related to the threat of radical infiltration. Subsequently, the situation resulted in inspections and a loud corruption scandal, with the detention of Deputy Foreign Minister of Poland Piotr Wawrzyk on suspicion of taking bribes. This was followed by Olaf Scholz’s threat to close the German-Polish border.”

Is a no-holds-barred approach good?

Today, Warsaw, Vilnius and Riga are pursuing several goals at once, trying to leverage the hyped migration issue in a way that is favourable for them. “Citizens of EU countries are deliberately frightened by the possible dominance of migrants. That is why the question on the ‘admission of thousands of illegal immigrants from the Middle East and Africa’ was put to a Polish referendum on the same day as the parliamentary elections in autumn 2023,” Anatoly Boyashov recalled. “What is the result? According to a sociological survey by the Polish Economic Institute, 86 percent of Poles believe that migrants pose a threat to local workers.”
According to the BISR analyst, the struggle during the presidential elections in Poland in 2025 will be based on the migration problem. It is expected that the electorate will support those who more effectively stop migration flows from the East, and know how to negotiate with politicians in Brussels on the issue of migration quotas in the EU. “All this is purposefully linked to the enemy image in the person of Belarus and Russia. According to Polish Foreign Minister Radosław Sikorski, 90 percent of illegal migrants ‘have Russian visas’ and ‘are sent to attack the EU’. In Warsaw, politicians are competing for the title of ‘the best fighter against Russian agents’, and Polish observers even claim that there are Wagnerians among illegal migrants,” Anatoly Boyashov noted. “This is despite the fact that, according to Western intelligence agencies, the situation on the borders is calm — this has been recently stated by Aurimas Navys, head of Lithuania’s Information Security Agency.”
It is obvious that politicians are escalating the situation to obtain additional funding from rich Western countries, primarily the United States and Germany. “Hype around migration threats allows Warsaw to skilfully bargain with Washington and Brussels. In recent years, a coalition of 15 countries has been formed that does not accept the EU’s migrant resettlement scheme,” the expert elaborated. “Poland is actively militarising and creating the largest land army in the EU. Washington will provide Warsaw with $2 billion to upgrade its troops, purchase F-35A Lightning II fighter jets, Patriot complexes and Abrams tanks. Against this backdrop, nationalist sentiments are growing in society. According to some reports, Poland is ready to send regular military formations to Ukraine under the guise of thousands of ‘Ukrainian citizens living in Poland’.”
Warsaw plans to increase military spending from 4.2 to 5 percent of GDP in 2025, as well as to triple the number of military personnel on the border with Belarus to 17,000.

Judge by the actions

Anatoly Boyashov believes that in this tricky situation, Belarus acts in a balanced and calm manner, “Belarus has introduced visa-free travel and simplified entry procedures for citizens of 38 Western countries. Such a policy is not aimed at mythical communication channels, as some foreign experts claim, since the visa-free regime does not apply to officials of Western countries. The Belarusian leadership is doing everything to prevent the fault for Europe’s long-standing problems from being laid at somebody else’s door and the Western propaganda from interfering with human contacts and the reasonable perception of our state.”

TO THE POINT

A few weeks ago, Latvia and Lithuania imposed a ban on the entry of passenger cars with Belarusian licence plates. Estonia joined the ban later. The Belarusian Foreign Ministry, commenting on the Western authorities’ actions, called those decisions inhumane.
The situation at road checkpoints is already tense, with queues at the borders not only of cars and trucks, but also of regular passenger buses. According to Belarus’ State Border Committee, queues of several hundred cars have been recorded in two directions: Lithuanian and Polish. As for heavy trucks, they stand in huge queues in all directions. There were 1,500+ trucks at two checkpoints in the Lithuanian direction. Queues of passenger buses were also observed, with 55 of them at the Brest checkpoint.
Only five checkpoints out of 14 operate on the border of Belarus and three neighbouring EU countries. Residents of European countries have also expressed their dissatisfaction. The Biała Podlaska Chamber of Commerce and Industry has sent a letter to the Office of the Prime Minister and other Polish government agencies demanding that they stop restraining passenger and cargo flows at the borders. Due to the imposed restrictions, dozens of Polish companies went bankrupt, thousands of jobs were lost as well as profits in the amount of €124 million.

By Anna Kurak