This is the avoidable cost of the West’s estrangement of Belarus. Yet those turned away at the border have it worse, finding themselves trapped in a dangerous limbo, short on supplies and exposed to the elements. The Polish border force has stopped16,000 migrants from entering the country since August, but the 5,000 migrants detained in Germany over a similar time period show the extent to which smugglers are wrongfooting the Polish authorities and delivering their clients as far as Western Europe.Īnyoneapprehended by a national border force is confined to a holding centre, the majority of which are ill-equipped to provide healthcare and other support.
The Kremlin-backedLukashenko has held firm in the face of economic isolation and the West will need a different, more diplomatic approach, to truly safeguard the interests of the Belarusian people. Despite claiming to have learnt its lesson, just a few years on and Europe looks to be sleepwalking towards a second migration crisis.īeginning this summer, the arrival of refugees apparently sent by President Lukashenko of Belarus, clearly unabashed by his regime’s comprehensive sanctioning by the West, has brought chaos back to the EU’s borders. The crisis sparked international outrageand a resounding condemnation of the EU and its border policy. Yet in 2016, it was the displacement of those caught up in the never-ending conflict of the Middle East that pushed tens of thousandsto make their way across the Mediterranean. Migrants and refugees have crossed the seas in search of a better life for centuries, like the Pilgrims did when they landed on Plymouth Rock in 1620, and in the case of the ‘Windrush’ generation of West Indians arriving in the UK after the Second World War, writes Louis Auge.
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