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POZIRK+Poland ties Belarus border reopening to security concerns
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POZIRK+
Despite surge at Polish-Belarusian border, Germany apprehends fewer migrants using the route
June 17, Pozirk. The German police reported a sharp decrease in illegal entries by foreigners from Poland and Czechia via Belarus, Deutsche Welle reported.
In the first five months of 2024, it registered 2,215 entries, whereas in the same period of 2023, it reported about 6,000 crossings.
Since the start of 2024, Germany’s Brandenburg federal state has recorded 1,021 illegal entries; Saxony, 867; and Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, 327.
However, migration flows to Germany spiked from 26 entries in January to 861 in April and 891 in May.
Since January, the European Union neighbors Poland, Lithuania and Latvia have not allowed more than 21,700 migrants to enter illegally from Belarus, 25 percent more than last year, Pozirk‘s analysis of border guards’ data showed.
Poland remained the primary target for illegal migrants, accounting for 88 percent of the reported instances.
Over the past few weeks, Polish border guards have been reporting physical attacks by aggressive migrants. Polish soldier Mateusz Sitek died on June 6 after being stabbed in the line of duty at the border.
The migration crisis started in spring 2021 after Alaksandar Łukašenka, angered by EU sanctions, had indicated that Minsk would not prevent migrants from Africa and Asia from using Belarus as a route to the EU. It escalated in November 2021, with hundreds of migrants storming the Polish border.
In June 2021, the Belarusian government announced the suspension of a readmission agreement with the EU in response to sanctions that followed the forced landing of a Ryanair flight in Minsk.
The Baltic states and Poland accused Belarusian authorities of creating the trouble, while the latter blamed it on the West.
In August 2023, the interior ministers of Poland and the Baltic States warned that they would close the border with Belarus in response to a surge in illegal migration.
