EU Home Affairs Commissioner Ylva Johansson will soon visit Poland to assess the situation at the border with Belarus, spokesperson Adalbert Jahnz said on Thursday 23 September, after reports of migrant deaths. She will also meet Mariusz Kamiński, the Polish Minister of the Interior, on 24 September.
The bodies of four people, presumably migrants, were found on Sunday 19 September on the Polish-Belarusian border, casting doubt on the border management activities of the Polish government, which has declared a state of emergency in the area and sent hundreds of soldiers.
The Commission spokesperson strongly “regretted” the death of these people and also said that “attempts to instrumentalise people”, as Belarus is doing, “create a difficult situation” for the Member States. “Borders must be protected, but not at the cost of human lives”.
In particular, the Commission will consider what additional support, including financial support, it can provide to Poland to protect its borders, a Member State which, like Lithuania, is experiencing “an act of aggression” by the Minsk regime.
In Poland, more than 8,000 people have arrived, including 3,500 in September, according to government figures. In any case, several Polish NGOs accuse the government of sending migrants back to Belarus.
Movements of migrants arriving on organised flights to Minsk from Iraq, among other places, have been observed in Lithuania since March, and Lithuania is currently observing a new trend with organised flights to Minsk from Damascus, Syria.
More than 4,100 people have arrived irregularly in Lithuania since the beginning of the year, compared to 74 people in 2020. (Original version in French by Solenn Paulic)