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Bialystol (Poland) – three hours from one o’clock European capitalAlong a straight, busy highway, at least two thousand people reside near the barbed wire border. They have fewer tents and fewer sleeping bags. They sleep on the floor, next to wood burning without heating because the air here is already below zero, removing heat and it slid into their jackets like a blade. At least five people have already been frozen to death in the past week. Others may not wake up. Among them are children of two and three years. After on both sides of the barbed wire Between Belarus and Poland, This is amazing humanitarian emergency It is treated as a military operation. Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki talks about a “new type of attack”, with Using migrants as weapons. Brussels Commission spokesman denounces “gangster tactics”, from Hybrid War. Lukashenko is no less: “I do not want an armed confrontation, but I will not give up.”

Warsaw has Agents deployed in riot gear A few meters away from the migrants, a state of emergency was declared in an entire district. Diverting commercial traffic, closing the border crossing and closing journalists’ cars. Helicopters, tanks carrying soldiers, and public buildings have been captured to create advanced barracks. At the end of the summer, Warsaw sensed Minsk’s plans and laid miles of barbed wire for them flexes traffic. However, the crisis has accelerated in the past two days. From small groups of 10 or 15, the number of immigrants grew to hundreds. Polish soldiers change their equipment, in the heat to eat and rest. The migrants are still there, more and more tired, because even at night helicopters fly with floodlights to make sure they don’t move.

Behind them, to keep them packed, there The forces of Belarusian dictator Alexander Lukashenko. Since the beginning of the year, according to EU sources, 8 thousand immigrants have arrived in Europe from its absolute republic, which is a new member of a crowded community. Libya has been blackmailing Italy with African refugees for decades, since 2016. Erdogan’s Turkey keeps Europe for the sake of the wallet with the SyriansMorocco opened its doors to the Melilla enclave this year when it wanted to send a warning to Spain. However, these have always been transit countries. In Belarus, the migration flow was ingeniously created through the air bridge.

For months in Turkey, Syria, the United Arab Emirates, Azerbaijan and perhaps even some African countries, Belarusian embassies have been offering tourist visas to those willing to pay a fortune for a fake holiday in the northern steppes: 10/12 thousand euros. The government has also essentially reduced the number of licensed travel agencies Lukashenko was making money traveling like any other human smuggler. The promise is an easy passage to the European castle. What will happen next is in the story of those who managed to transcend the role of Ali Nur al-Din.

“They took us to the border with buses, collected cell phones, distributed some wire cutters, and then left them in the woods. “Europe, Europe,” they pointed their finger at. When we got to the barbed wire we didn’t have time to cut it because it’s on the other side The Poles were already there. Those who tried to get back on the road were beaten up by the Belarusians and again thrown at the border.” Ali Noureddine is an Afghan Hazara, with wounds to his legs and arms still open since Sunday evening when he stepped over the wire. It is now hidden in Bialystol, on the Polish side of the border. “Use this record,” the Belarusians explained to us with nods. According to them, we should have put it on the sharp points and passed, but the Poles arrived and fired tear gas. No shelter at the border, no food. Now that Poland has noticed, everyone left there is trapped. I did it alone, I walk at night, but I don’t know how to go on. “Where to?” “In Germany, we all want to go to Germany.”

Lukashenko appears to have 10/20,000 migrants at his disposal to be launched as missiles towards Poland, as well as Lithuania and Latvia who in turn mobilized the army. He hopes to pass Afghans, Syrians, Iraqis and Africans who did not think they were being used to break the contradictions of the European Union. A human rights defender who leaves people in the cold a stone’s throw from their homes. The dictator’s irony is acidic: “The Polish armored columns are moving against these unfortunate people. Shame. In any case, we will not get down on our knees.”

Warsaw and the Baltic republics demand European solidarity. Brussels is ready to impose new sanctions on Lukashenko even if it knows that trade sanctions do or do nothing. The border with Russia for the great patron Vladimir Putin is always open for Belarusian products. Sanctions against airlines complicit in the flow may be more beneficial. We’ll talk about it next week. On the other hand, community funding for a secure border wall, another funding to protect Europe. Closing the borders can help Warsaw make its European partners forget some of its laws that are not in line with the values ​​of society.

And Lukashenko, of course, also believes that he can gain from a lot of suffering. Not just for the price of tickets. Moscow is proposing that the EU push Belarus to stop the flow, as it does with Turkey. Perhaps it is enough for Lukashenko that the dissidents who have taken refuge in Europe lose the opportunity to engage in political activity against him. Stop destabilizing Belarus and I will stop sending you immigrants.