Fate of Migrants at Belarus-EU Border Risks Taking Darker Turn

Now, here on the Polish side of the border, they had no water and their phones had been broken - by the Belarusians, they claimed. And they were adamant that they do not want to go back to Belarus: all three had fresh bandages and Mohammed's head was bleeding.

Mohammed (l), Safaa (c) and Faysal (r) are seen exhausted in a field near the border on 14 August, 2021 in Minkowce, Poland. Faysal attempts to explain to a reporter they have been sent over the border and returned to Belarus multiple times. Photo: Jaap Arriens

Safaa and his friends are caught up in a growing crisis at the EU's borders with the intractable eastern European state. Over the summer, Belarus's autocratic leader, Aleksandr Lukashenko, has been sending migrants - mostly from the Middle East and Afghanistan - over its western borders.

The three Iraqi men interviewed by BIRN did not share details about what persuaded them to come to Europe via Belarus in the first place, but media and think tanks, as well as comments from Belarusian officials themselves, indicate Lukashenko is using the migrants as a way to retaliate against the EU for its imposition of sanctions on his regime for its violent crackdown after a rigged presidential election in 2020.

The decision by Belarus to use the migrants as a weapon in its "hybrid war" with the EU has put in motion networks of intermediaries active between Belarus and the countries of origin of the migrants. People desperate to get into Europe have been presented with a new opportunity to reach the West.

Initially, Belarus concentrated the migrant flow on the Lithuanian border, with the country receiving over 4,000 migrants this year, 50 times more than in the whole of 2020. But efforts to block the migrants from entering, including...

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