Minsk is charged with “repeated violations of human rights” and to nourish since the summer a vast migration crisis at the Polono-Belarusian border.
Le Monde with AFP
The United States, the United Kingdom, the European Union (EU) and Canada announced, Thursday, December 2, new economic sanctions against Belarus, accused of “repeated human rights violations” and to feed a vast migration crisis on the Polono-Belarusian border by issuing visa to refugees and by transporting them.
“We reiterate the [President Belarusian President Alexander] regime Loukachenko to immediately stop and completely the organization of irregular migration through his borders with the EU,” underline Western countries in a common statement.
Minsk is accused of orchestrated, since the summer, the influx of migrants to its border with Poland to revenge with Western sanctions taken after the opposition repression denouncing the contested re-election of Mr. Lukashenko. 2020 – What he denies. Since then, the migration pressure on Polish borders, but also Lithuanian, continues to grow.
The sanctions “demonstrate our unfortunate determination to act against a brutal regime that is increasingly repressed by Belarus, undermines peace and security in Europe, and continues to exploit people who seek only to live Liberty “, stressed in another communiqué the leader of American diplomacy Antony Blinken.
Thousands of soldiers along the border
The US Treasury department announced targeting twenty individuals and twelve organizations close to power, accused of “facilitated the passage (…) of migrants in the EU”, and to have “taken part in the ongoing repression aimed at human rights and democracy “. European side, the list of EU sanctions has been officially extended Thursday to twenty-eight leaders and entities, including the BELAVIA National Airline.
Poland extended Tuesday of three months the prohibition of access to the border region with Belarus, imposed in September after the start of the migration crisis. Access to the border area remains forbidden for any non-resident person, including NGO members who help migrants, according to new measures. The journalists, who have so far been prohibited there, will now be able to request a special authorization.
In response to tensions with Belarus and the presence of thousands of migrants at its doorstep, mainly from the Middle East, Poland has built a barbed wire fence and massaged thousands of soldiers along these 400 kilometers of border.
Polish media feel that at least a dozen people died on both sides of the border, trying to cross this wooded area to enter the EU.