Minsk police credit “vigilantes” with flagging irregular migrants
October 16, Pozirk. Police have detected groups of “illegal migrants” in Minsk after being tipped off by “vigilant citizens,” the city police department said in a press release.
According to the report, the migrants have been found as a result of a large-scale operation aimed at “aborting illegal migration and ensuring strict compliance with migration legislation.”
The violators have reportedly been subjected to “measures of legal enforcement,” including expulsion from Belarus, and punished with fines.
In addition, police have detected individuals who provided the foreign citizens with accommodation without properly informing authorities, the report said.
It did not specify the number of migrants rounded up.
The flow of people eager to cross into the EU surged in spring 2021 after Alaksandar Łukašenka, angered by EU sanctions, had indicated that Minsk would not prevent asylum seekers from Africa and Asia from using Belarus as a route to the EU.
In June 2021, the Belarusian government suspended a readmission agreement with the EU in response to sanctions that followed the forced landing of a Ryanair flight in Minsk.
Latvia, Lithuania and Poland call the migration crisis a “hybrid attack” orchestrated by Minsk and Moscow.
The three countries have reported a marked decline in the number of attempts by undocumented third-country foreigners to enter their territory from Belarus in recent weeks, amid signs of a cautious reengagement with Minsk.
In particular, Poland and Lithuania had reported no irregular activity at their border with Belarus for 12 and 29 days, respectively, as of October 15, while Latvia recorded only four such attempts on October 14, the smallest number in 49 days.
Belarusian diplomat spars with Latvian colleague over irregular migrants
October 10, Pozirk. Vadzim Pisarevič, deputy head of the Belarusian foreign ministry’s directorate for multilateral diplomacy, used a UN General Assembly event on October 9 to call on neighboring European Union countries to “stop the politicization of migration,” prompting a …
