Crises of Conscience, Absent Conscience

"The Belarusian regime is attacking the Polish border, the EU, in an unparalleled manner."

"We currently have a camp of migrants who are blocked from the Belarusian side. There are about a thousand people there, mostly young men."

"These are aggressive actions that we must repel, fulfilling our obligations as a member of the European Union."

Polish President Andrzej Duda

"Very rapidly at the beginning of next week there will be a widening of the sanctions against Belarus."
"We will look into the possibility of sanctioning those airlines who facilitate human trafficking towards Minsk and then the EU-Belarus border."

European Commission President Ursula van der Leyen

"We call on Belarus to abide by international law. We have seen a surge of migrants trying to enter allied territory via Belarus."

"NATO continues to closely monitor the situation, which is putting pressure on our allies Lithuania, Latvia and Poland. The Lukashenko regime's use of migrants as a hybrid tactic is unacceptable."

NATO official

 

"We have no doubt that the Belarusian migration services are taking all necessary measures to keep the situation in the legal field."

Dmitry Peskov, spokesman, Kremlin

Polish troops and border guards with shields stopped migrants from crossing into the country  Getty Images

The Polish authorities describe 28,500 attempts to breach the border between Belarus and Poland, encouraged by Belarusian security guards on orders from the government of Alexander Lukashenko, Belarusia's disputed president. The 'election' that returned Mr. Lukashenko to power infuriated many Belarusians who want a real election, and to see the end of their re-elected president in the sham election that brought people out to protest on the streets, who were brutally dispersed on their president's orders.

 

The situation with its clear overtones of dictatorial abuse of power and the persecution of protesters, brought swift condemnation from most foreign government sources, and in sympathy with Belarusian protesters and government opposition, along with condemnation of the regime's tactics, the EU wasn't long in sanctioning the country. Mr. Lukashenko's response to those sanctions is an effort to destabilize the EU and there is no better way to do so than exposing Western Europe to yet another invasion of migrants.

A woman and her child eat as they gather with other migrants from the Middle East and elsewhere at the Belarus-Poland border near Grodno, Belarus, Nov. 9, 2021.

Memory of the 2015 migrant armies of people attempting to escape civil war, repression, poverty and state brutality, from the Middle East to Africa washing up on Europe's shores via Italy and Greece which led to over a million migrants claiming refugee status and haven, inundating Austria and Germany in particular with a tide of youthful migrants still resonates over the disruption in relations it caused between the 27 member states of the EU,

 

NATO is furious over Belarusian soldiers shepherding migrants to the border into Poland in hopes of accessing entry to the EU. The migrants were being urged to cut holes in the retaining fence, felling trees in an effort to batter through the barbed wire. "NATO stands ready to further assist our allies, and maintain safety and security in the region", announced a NATO official. The Polish Border Guard affirmed that migrants tried to force through the border on the external frontier of the EU.

 

Polish police and border guards stand near barbed wire to stop migrants from the Middle East and elsewhere gathering at the Belarus-Poland border near Grodno, Belarus, Nov. 9, 2021

 

The Polish servicemen formed a human shield blocking the migrants while the crowd shouted "Germany!", and migrants began setting up camp. Hundreds of tents and roadside fires on the Belarusian side were captured on aerial footage. Between 3,000 and 4,000 people were estimated to have gathered on the border's Belausian side leading to claims that the EU's external frontier was under "organized attack". The EU, deploring President Lukashenko's "gangster-style" tactics, promised more sanctions to come.

 

The migrants, said Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiekci, were being used by Belarus as a new type of war in which people re used as "human shields". All of which claims, understandably enough, are denied by the Lukashenko government. Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov helpfully suggested the EU support Belarus with financial assistance which might put a halt to the flow of migrants. Reminiscent of Turkey's tactics with its swarms of Syrian refugees fleeing the Civil War that identified Syrian President Bashar al-Assad as a mass murderer.

 

Poland has erected a barbed-wire fence along its border with Belarus   Getty Images

Europe is now accused by the Kremlin of not living up to its own ideals in handling humanitarian crises, instead planning to "strangle" Belarus by closing the frontier. That the EU chose to impose further sanctions on Belarus over the crisis was unconscionable, stated the Kremlin. Even so,  Poland has been warned by Brussels that EU funds must not be used to erect border walls and razor wire to exclude migrants. While others argue the EU is obliged to lend Poland assistance in defending its border.

 

Nothing appears to deter the migrants in their thousands from converging on the border where Polish soldiers block their entry even as some migrants use logs, spades and other implements in attempts to break through the makeshift razor wire. Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov expressed the opinion that responsible Europeans "not allow themselves to be drawn into a spiral that is fairly dangerous". Read that as one will....

 

Migrants gather near a barbed wire fence in an attempt to cross the border with Poland in the Grodno region, Belarus