Ukraine says Belarus trying to create migration crisis at shared border

November 27, BPN. Belarus continues to support attempts of illegal border crossing attempts by migrants, Ukraine’s State Border Guard Service said. 

Recently, Ukrainian border guards arrested six illegal migrants from Pakistan and Bangladesh who walked to Ukraine from Belarus, it noted. Allegedly, Belarusian border guards drove them to the border, showed them the way, and ordered them to report on the illegal crossing. 

Border guards said correspondence found on foreigners’ phones confirms this. Foreigners also confessed that prior to coming to Ukraine they had unsuccessfully tried to get to Poland with the assistance of Belarusian security forces. 

Ukrainian authorities had been expecting provocations with migrants on the border since the 2021 migration crisis at the Belarusian-EU border, border guards noted. 

The crisis escalated on November 8, 2021, when thousands of migrants set up a camp near the Polish border.

The Baltic states and Poland accused Belarusian authorities of creating the trouble, while the latter blamed it on the West. Migration figures had dropped significantly by the time Russia invaded Ukraine on February 24, but have risen more recently.

Over the last seven days, Belarus’ border guards said that they had found several bodies of migrants near the fence that separates Belarus and Poland.