Belarus, Russia may use migrants to destabilize EU – Czech foreign ministry

September 7, BPN. Belarus and Russia may again use migrants to try to destabilize the European Union countries, Czech foreign ministry said in an internal document quoted by EUobserver.

According to Prague, there is an “ever-present risk of instrumentalization [of migrants] by Belarus and Russia,” especially in light of the reports by Polish and Lithuanian security services about possible increase of attempted irregular crossings. This concerns African migrants who are temporarily staying in Russia before going to the EU via Belarus.

Prague also said that Russia’s visa policy in Africa facilitates the migrant flows and warned about high potential for possible increase in illegal migrant flows, noting nearly 15,000 thousand attempts of illegal border crossing between Belarus and the EU.

Prague stressed that the situation at the Belarus-EU border differs from real refugee crises, as it is “a deliberately orchestrated campaign by Belarus to cause political stress inside the EU.”

On July 1, the Czech Republic took over the presidency of the Council of the European Union for the second time in its history.