In yet another reaction to the immigration crisis at the borders with Belarus, the European Union will bar travel operators and airlines from getting involved in what the bloc called “instrumentalization of immigrants”.
The term refers to the influx, which started in June this year, of thousands of foreigners to the borders between Belarus and Lithuania, Latvia and Poland, attracted by the dictatorship of Aleksandr Lukachenko, according to the commissioner responsible for immigration in the EU, Ylva Johansson .
She says Belarus lured foreigners with a promise they would be able to cross EU borders — on a trip to Lithuania in August, sheet heard immigrants who said they received this promise.
According to the European Union, there are currently 7,500 of these foreigners attracted to Belarus in the three countries on the bloc’s western border, in addition to about 8,000 who have managed to reach Germany.
Thousands more were barred and blocked in the “no-one’s zone” between the borders or in Belarusian territory, without water, food or shelter. Aid from humanitarian organizations was hampered after troops from both sides barred access to the border area.
The numbers are imprecise, but there are estimates that up to 10,000 people are on Belarusian territory, waiting to gain entry into the EU. Lithuania’s border guard says it has barred more than 7,000 migrants since August, while Poland reports 3,500 foreigners near its borders.
“These migrants are being deceived by terrible false promises,” European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen told the European Parliament this Tuesday, who attributed the move to “an attempt by an authoritarian regime to try to destabilize its democratic neighbors.”
In an interview with the BBC last week, the dictator admitted that his country “may have helped immigrants, out of solidarity with them”. He denied, however, that he intended to retaliate against the bloc for the sanctions imposed since he brutally repressed protesters who accused the August 2020 election of fraud.
But in July of this year, after one of the sanctions rounds, Lukachenko himself foreshadowed the crisis: “We are no longer going to stop any migrants from making their way through Belarus. After all, they are going to a bright, warm and welcoming Europe,” he said. he.
Under the new rules, announced on Tuesday by the three main European institutions — the Commission (Executive Power), the Parliament and the Council (which brings together the 27 leaders of the bloc) — companies can be banned from flying over the EU and landing at its airports, if only for fuel.
The restrictions will be imposed regardless of whether their involvement in “attempts at destabilization” was intentional or not, and the leasing of European planes to the Belarusian company Belavia will also be banned.
They will also apply to land, river or maritime transport companies “that engage in or facilitate smuggling or trafficking in human beings into the European Union”.
The mechanism, according to Margaritis Schinas, vice president of the European Commission, is tangible evidence of the bloc’s willingness to act more decisively.
The bloc, which does not recognize Lukachenko’s election, had already imposed sanctions on Belarusian transport companies in June this year after the dictatorship diverted a commercial flight to arrest journalist Roman Protassevich. They were banned from flying over EU airspace and using its airports.
The new law will also allow companies from other countries to be punished for bringing immigrants from the Middle East to Belarus. Among some of the main ones are Turkish Airlines and Iraqi Airways, which have reduced their flights to Minsk after meetings between commissioners and the Turkish and Iraqi governments.
Direct travel from Baghdad to Minsk was suspended in August, and Erbil flights arriving in Belarus after stopovers were also stopped.
“Certain transport operators, knowingly or unknowingly, have facilitated or contributed to smuggling and trafficking operations to the Belarus border. These actions have endangered the lives of vulnerable people, the security of the EU’s external borders and the stability in the region.” , said the Commission.
The bloc, which had already been financing the repatriation of Iraqis collected to refugee camps in their countries who agreed to return to their home nation, announced an additional 3.5 million euros (about R$21 million) to support voluntary returns from Belarus.
According to Belarusian media, around 600 foreigners boarded from Minsk back to their countries this week.
“The viable route to Europe is via a legally paved path, not an uneven forest path,” said Johansson, who this year introduced a draft new Pact on Migration and Asylum.
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