The Polish government has accommodated 15,000 refugees from Belarus in the last year, Foreign Minister Mariusz Kaminski revealed during the international conference “Border Management”.
The Foreign Minister further went on to say that a similar migration crisis as the one of 2015 when thousands of migrants died was about to occur in Europe in these recent years, SchengenVisaInfo.com reports.
“The post-Soviet Lukashenka regime was driven by a desire to take revenge on Poland, Lithuania, and Latvia for the support we gave to the Belarusian opposition, with concern for political refugees. In Poland alone, after 2020, when there were big protests and repressions after rigged elections, we accommodated about 15 thousand political refugees from Belarus,” said the Minister during the conference held in the Lithuanian capital Vilnius.
He also pointed out that his government never has and won’t deny assistance to refugees, as thousands of the latter have flooded the Central European country in 2020 and 2021.
During this international conference, the members concluded that “the security and integrity of the Schengen area cannot be threatened. The internal territory can only function effectively if the external borders are adequately protected.”
According to the Polish Office for Foreigners, out of 7,700 applications filed in the country last year, about 2,300 of those, or 30 per cent, came from Belarusians seeking international protection in Poland in a bid to escape the unsafe situation in their home country.
The same source further on reveals that nearly 100 per cent of Belarusians were able to apply for international protection in Poland with decisions issued to 1,200 people, out of which 95.44 per cent were positive and 0.2 per cent negative. In addition, 4.5 per cent resulted in redemptions.
However, the war of combatting the migration crisis with Belarus doesn’t affect only Poland as it is a neighbouring country but also the Baltic countries such as Lithuania and the EU as a whole. Previously, the Members of the European Parliament said that the EU must stand united in its approach towards the Belarusian regime.
In other words, the situation with Belarus has escalated as its President, Aleksander Lukashenko, is suspected of having manipulated elections, which selected him as head of the Belarusian government for the third time in a row – since 1994. Furthermore, the Belarusian travel agencies have also been accused of alluring Middle Eastern refugees into the country under false hopes of reaching Western European countries. After reaching Belarus, numerous people fleeing their home countries in the Middle East were left in limbo as Poland refused to take them in, and Belarus pushed them in the forests towards the border with Poland. As a result, several refugees died due to cold temperatures they were suffering at the border.
SOURCE: Schengen Visa Info
