{"id":199987,"date":"2026-08-14T13:26:12","date_gmt":"2026-08-14T10:26:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/news\/199987\/"},"modified":"2026-08-14T13:26:13","modified_gmt":"2026-08-14T10:26:13","slug":"minsk-reports-smashing-another-migrant-smuggling-ring","status":"publish","type":"articles","link":"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/news\/199987\/","title":{"rendered":"Minsk reports smashing another migrant smuggling ring"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

August 14, Pozirk. <\/strong>Belarus\u2019 interior ministry has reported arresting four individuals who allegedly ran a trafficking ring enabling irregular migrants to cross into the European Union through Belarus.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Police reportedly apprehended a 21-year-old woman resident in Minsk as well as three foreigners, namely, a 51-year-old woman and two men aged 22 and 41, who were seeking to bring more than 70 residents of Asian countries into Belarus illegally. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The group \u201csystematically organized the illegal entry and transit of undocumented migrants from South and Southwest Asia through Belarus, with the ultimate goal of smuggling them into the EU outside official border checkpoints.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The migrants reportedly stayed without visas or official registration in rented apartments across Minsk and its suburbs. The detainees allegedly charged each individual $100 per month, spending the earnings on “personal needs, including elite real estate rentals, taxi services, and holidays abroad.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The ministry emphasized that the arrested Belarusian woman had repeatedly been punished for similar offenses in the past, while two of the foreign suspects were residing in Belarus illegally.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Two criminal cases have reportedly been opened on a charge of facilitating illegal migration.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On August 1, the interior ministry reported arresting four men from the Middle East who had lived in Belarus without registration for two years, allegedly smuggling migrants from South Asian countries via Russia to Belarus and then helping them cross the border into the EU outside official checkpoints through forests and across rivers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Belarusian law enforcement agencies also reported crackdowns on migrant smuggling rings in July, May and March this year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The reports came despite Alaksandar \u0141uka\u0161enka\u2019s claim that Belarusian security agencies would not prevent undocumented migrants from traveling to the EU through Belarus unless the bloc lifted sanctions imposed on his regime.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The flow of people eager to cross into the EU surged in spring 2021 after Alaksandar \u0141uka\u0161enka, 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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Latvia, Lithuania and Poland call the migration crisis a \u201chybrid attack\u201d orchestrated by Minsk and Moscow.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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