The Foreign Ministers of the European Union Member States agreed on Monday 15 November to modify the EU sanctions regime on Belarus in order to address the instrumentalisation of human beings.
A Council Decision and Regulation thus broaden the criteria for inclusion in the list, on the basis of which specific designations can be made.
From now on, it will be possible to sanction persons and entities that organise or contribute to the activities of the Lukashenko regime facilitating the illegal crossing of the EU’s external borders.
Migrants are “instrumentalised, cheated and converted on kind of political objective, which is illegal and inhumane”, denounced the High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, Josep Borrell, convinced that this artificially created migration crisis should not divert attention from the political crisis in Belarus.
Borrell also announced a political agreement by Member States on a new sanctions package that will be “finalised in the coming days”. These sanctions could cover up to 30 individuals and entities linked to the instrumentalisation of human beings, but also to human rights violations in the country.
“If the situation does not improve, there is the possibility of working on other sanctions with a sixth package”, a diplomat warned. He added that there would be no sectoral sanctions for the time being.
On their arrival at the Foreign Affairs Council, Borrell and several ministers, including Germany’s Heiko Maas, had called for additional measures against Belarus, including against airlines and travel agencies that facilitate the movement of would-be migrants.
According to Lithuanian Minister Gabrielius Landsbergis, eight airlines are operating flights to Minsk. “We have to make sure that no aircraft that might be carrying people intending to emigrate, to cross the border illegally, land in Minsk or any other Belarusian airport”, he said on his arrival, calling for Belarusian airports to be sanctioned as well. “Our interest is to make Minsk airport a no-fly zone for commercial airlines until the crisis is over”, he told a group of journalists, including EUROPE.
When asked by EUROPE about the possibility of sanctioning third country airlines flying between two third countries, a diplomat said that legally the question was open, but that analyses indicated it was possible. According to this source, the fact that the EU has signalled its intention to act in a comprehensive way has had a deterrent effect.
After Turkey, the United Arab Emirates have banned the Belarusian airline Belavia from carrying Afghan, Syrian, Yemeni and Iraqi citizens on flights from Dubai to Belarus since Sunday 14 November.
The High Representative considered that “the influx of human beings is being brought under control”, while recalling that migrants stranded at the border between an EU country and Belarus should receive humanitarian aid.
“Just because they are not allowed to enter the EU does not mean they have to starve and freeze”, Borrell stressed. He said he had asked the Belarusian authorities whether they would provide humanitarian aid or allow it to be delivered, and whether they would cooperate in facilitating “the repatriation” of these people.
The Belarusian authorities assured him that they would provide such assistance and that the mobilisation of the army had already allowed access for UN agencies (see EUROPE 12831/3). The High Representative is also in close contact with UN Secretary-General António Guterres on this issue.
Mr Landsbergis called for those stranded in Belarus wishing to be repatriated from Grodno to their home or host country to be allowed to do so, adding that Lithuania was ready to provide technical assistance in this regard. For his part, Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko announced that his country was working to “return migrants” to their homes.
According to the Iraqi government, a first flight to repatriate Iraqi migrants from Belarus will take place on Thursday 18 November “on a voluntary basis”. (Original version in French by Camille-Cerise Gessant with Aminata Niang)