Hundreds of migrants huddled around campfires yesterday near the border between Belarus and Poland, where barbed wire fences and Polish border guards block their entry into the European Union.
The EU accused the president's government Alexander Lukashenko for "gangster" tactics in the months-long border crisis that claimed at least seven lives.
As early as next week, that bloc could approve additional sanctions against Belarus, the target of which will be around 30 individuals and entities, including the Minister of Foreign Affairs and the Belavia airline, Reuters reported, citing three EU diplomats.
The punitive measures will cover Belarusian officials who the EU says are organizing the arrival of migrants in revenge for sanctions imposed on Minsk for human rights abuses.
"The Belarusian regime is attacking the Polish border, the EU, in an outrageous way," said the Polish president Andrzej Duda at a press conference in Warsaw.
"Currently we 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 reject, fulfilling our obligations as a member of the European Union".
Reuters reporters saw Polish border guards detain a group of migrants yesterday morning in a forest on the Polish side of the border. Paramedics covered some migrants with blankets. One woman could not walk.
Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki, who earlier visited troops on the border, said Belarus was using migrants as part of a "new type of war where people are used as human shields."
Lukashenko's government, which is backed by Russia, denies creating the migrant crisis and blames Europe and the US for the plight of people stuck at the border.
Yesterday, she invited the Polish military attaché to protest against what she said were unfounded claims about the involvement of Belarusian military personnel in the crisis.
Lukashenko said he was with the Russian president Vladimir Putin discussed the situation over the phone and expressed concern about the accumulation of Polish troops on the border, the Belarusian Belta agency announced yesterday.
"Waging war with these unfortunate people on the border of Poland with Belarus and advancing with columns of tanks - it is clear that it is either a training exercise or blackmail," Lukashenko said on television.
"We will oppose it calmly," he added.
Russian Minister of Foreign Affairs Sergey Lavrov he proposed that the EU provide Belarus with financial aid to stem the flow of migrants, similar to the agreement previously reached with Turkey.
The European Commission announced that there are currently around two thousand migrants at the border.
"This is part of the inhumane and truly gangster approach of the Lukashenko regime, to lie to people, to abuse them ... and bring them to Belarus under the false promise that they will easily enter the EU," said the Commission spokesman.
EU governments have partially suspended an agreement on visa facilitation for Belarusian officials.
The United Nations refugee agency, UNHCR, has called for an end to the use of vulnerable people as political pawns.
A spokesman for Polish special forces, Stanislav Zarin, said Belarusian security forces were "firing blank rounds into the air, simulating dangerous events," while also providing tools to migrants helping them destroy the border fence.
On Monday, the Polish border guard registered 309 illegal attempts to cross the border and detained 17 people, mostly Iraqis.
Lithuania also reported an increase in attempted migrant crossings and yesterday, following Poland's example, declared a state of emergency on its border.
Reuters says the move allows border guards to use "mental coercion" and "commensurate physical force" to stop migrants.
Aid groups accuse Poland of violating international asylum law by forcibly returning migrants to Belarus instead of accepting their requests for protection. Poland claims its actions are legal.
A poll conducted by IBRiS for the daily "Žečpospolita" this Sunday showed that 55 percent of Poles believe that migrants who have crossed the border illegally should be forcibly returned.
Considering the strained relationship with the EU, it is not easy for Poland to call it for help, reports the "Konversajshn" portal. He adds that right now it would be easier for Poland to ask for NATO's help, but that requires a militarization of the narrative.
The commentary assesses that, from the perspective of the EU, the crisis is dangerous from several angles. "She is aware that the attitude towards the deadlock can have consequences for the potential "Polexite". The crisis could bring the Poles, who are largely pro-European, closer to the government, which is increasingly hostile to the EU, which would be a great strategic victory for Russia."
"Migrants" for Poland, "refugees" for Belarus
Thousands of vulnerable migrants, stuck in the dispute between Poland and Belarus and the geopolitical blocs to which they belong, are "migrants" according to one report and "refugees" according to others, notes Nando Sigona, professor of international migration and forced displacement at the University of Birmingham.
As an example, Sigona cites a BBC report in which Poland fears that Belarus may try to provoke an incident with hundreds of migrants trying to cross into the EU. In the same report, it is stated that the Belarusian border police said that the "refugees" have headed to the EU "where they want to seek protection".
The conclusion is that people stuck at the border are "migrants" for Poland and "refugees" for Belarus. By using quotation marks in reporting on the position of Belarus, the BBC indirectly opted for the narrative of Poland and the EU, Sigona points out.
This is not the way to use different terminology in migrant crises, and displaced persons have been used as leverage on the geopolitical chessboard before. Some analysts believe that Belarus is acting on behalf of its powerful sponsor Russia, suggesting that the agenda behind the current crisis could be much more far-reaching, adds Sigona.
While it is possible that Belarus and Russia are indeed working behind the scenes to cause the crisis, Sigona points out that since the Mediterranean border crisis, the EU has invested enormous resources to virtually close Mediterranean sea routes, so the opening of new land routes is not surprising. He reminds that land routes have long been used for illegal migration until the use of fences, barbed wire, walls and other means that made them difficult and dangerous for migrants was significantly increased.
"Understanding the geopolitics behind the current crisis is useful and relevant, but the protection of vulnerable people stuck at the EU border and their humanitarian needs should come first, as well as their right to seek asylum," concludes Sigona.
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