![]() Germany and Poland are Belarus’s main trading partners, and Poland is the transit country for trade exchanges with the whole EU (in 2020 Belarus earned €8 billion from this). The Polish prime minister, Mateusz Morawiecki, has already proposed such an option. Above all, it should threaten to halt the flow of goods at the Polish-Belarusian border for Belarusian companies if “migrant tourism” is not stopped immediately. It needs to work closely with Poland to ensure that the EU places more extensive economic sanctions on Belarus as quickly as possible. As long as this danger remains, there can be no talk of a credible humanitarian solution, which so many are loudly advocating.įor this not to be an empty promise, the traffic-light coalition must now show courage. If the road to Europe – today blocked at its border by barbed wire and brutality – were to be opened to stranded migrants after all, would that not mean that many more will come, and thus give Lukashenka’s malicious activities a further boost? The fear of such a pull effect is what makes not only Poles and Lithuanians protest vehemently against admission. This should certainly apply to Yemenis or Yazidis who are holding out in Belarus today.īut such a humanitarian gesture could potentially backfire. “We have space,” cried Green chancellor candidate Annalena Baerbock during the election campaign. But it would actually be in Berlin’s interest, and it would in no way overwhelm the country. An orderly admission of a certain number of refugees has been taboo until now. And, yes, Germany would have to be in the vanguard of this.Īround 10,000 migrants have made it to Germany via Poland by themselves so far. The EU must therefore organise a humanitarian corridor to get the migrants out of the Belarusian trap and have them distributed across Europe. They would then remain at the mercy of the Belarusian president and could be used for new provocations. Still, leaving them stuck in Belarus would be unacceptable for the EU, and not only for humanitarian reasons. While the first option is unavailable because Warsaw rejects it, the second requires the resumption of talks with Lukashenka.īut it would be an illusion to believe that after Merkel’s and Lukashenka’s chat, all or most of the migrants remaining in Belarus will now be taken back home. But if those stranded in Belarus should be given help – and the traffic-light parties and many Europeans are all calling for just that – only two options remain: either let them enter the EU (read: Poland) and offer orderly asylum procedures or try to provide for them on the Belarusian side. This is especially since the price for thwarting his attacks is unknown. Yes, breaking with isolating the dictator, who has more than 800 political opponents in jail, is a dangerous undertaking. The EU must organise a humanitarian corridor to get the migrants out of the Belarusian trap and have them distributed across Europe.īut the criticism Merkel has received for this move, especially from the German Greens and in Poland, is only partly justified. There are enough flights from Russia to get them there. And the EU’s recently agreed sanctions on airlines and companies that facilitate so-called “migration tourism” to Minsk are still no guarantee that more people will not be lured to Belarus. Lukashenka’s henchmen can at any moment send desperate people towards the border again. But as long as thousands more refugees are stuck in Belarus, the humanitarian crisis will go unresolved, and the danger of a new escalation will remain. ![]() ![]() Some of the migrants have been taken into temporary care, and several hundred have been sent back to Iraq. Violent attacks on both sides of the border eased off. Since two telephone calls took place between Angela Merkel and Lukashenka, the situation on the EU’s eastern border has indeed improved. The impression that the crisis is already under control is very misleading. To achieve it, however, the new federal government will have to take bold steps. The crucial question is: how can the EU prevent a humanitarian catastrophe on Europe’s doorstep without playing into the hands of dictators to its east? And do these even go together – protecting human rights, defending the border, and confronting Lukashenka and Vladimir Putin? This should be possible. But all of these goals are at stake in the current border crisis. The “traffic light” parties want to end the suffering at EU borders, act tougher on autocrats, take seriously Germany’s responsibility for shaping EU’s foreign policy, and represent Europe’s values – both internally and externally – more forcefully. The crisis at the European Union’s eastern border, where Belarusian dictator Alyaksandar Lukashenka is using thousands of migrants to blackmail the EU, will be the foreign policy litmus test for Germany’s new coalition. ![]()
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