Speaking in the European Parliament on Wednesday 10 November, the High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, Josep Borrell, did not have harsh enough words to criticise the exploitation of migrants by Alexander Lukashenko’s government and called for a strong and united EU response combining a new set of sanctions against the Belarusian regime and humanitarian aid to the victims of this exploitation.
In his view, this is a hybrid attack on the EU, which started this summer with people from Iraq being transported to Belarus and then to the EU. The situation had seemed to stabilise, only to flare up again since October, increasing the number of countries of origin and transit for victims of human traffickers.
“It is not a war, but it is an attack, it is a weaponisation of human beings, of the weakest human beings. A dictator who allows himself to use people as a political weapon at will”.
He said that the European External Action Service had taken diplomatic action by alerting countries of origin and transit to ask them to cooperate in stopping these flights.
The EEAS is in contact with 13 partner countries and Commission Vice-President Margarítis Schinás will soon visit Abu Dhabi, Erbil and Ankara to address this crisis “which is putting pressure on the Union’s external borders”.
A fifth set of sanctions “including those responsible for fuelling this crisis” will be taken against the Belarusian government, and EU foreign ministers will discuss the issue on Monday 15 November.
“Furthermore, this is a humanitarian crisis. Therefore, it should be treated as such “, Mr Borrell stressed. He said that humanitarian organisations are not able to help these people at the borders, either on the Belarusian or the European side, because the Belarusian authorities do not grant access.
The High Representative said he had discussed the situation with the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, Filippo Grandi, and described the situation as unacceptable. “Winter is here. Thousands of people have to stay during low temperatures in the fields: no water, no food, no heating”.
The priority, he said, is to get humanitarian access from the Belarusian government. Corridors should then be opened for people who need to return to their homes and “need humanitarian assistance to get them out of the situation the Lukashenko regime has put them in”. Agreements will also need to be made with countries of transit and origin for the safe return of these people.
“What bothers me, bothers all of us, is first, the humanitarian situation of these people, and secondly, the grave geopolitical situation. We need to mobilise all our resources to address all the dimensions - humanitarian, geopolitical, migration “, of the problem, said Mr Borrell.
All MEPs have called for a firm response, with a split between the right and the left over the idea of building a wall on the Belarus-Poland border.
Manfred Weber (EPP, Germany) said that in an extraordinary situation, EU funds should be able to finance the construction of a fence to protect the EU’s external borders, much to the dismay of Iratxe Garcia Sanchez (S&D, Spain), for whom “thousands of men, women and children in distress are not a threat to our security”. (Original version in French by Aminata Niang)