Polish spox to migrants: ‘Don’t come. We won’t let you in!’

Karwan Faidhi Dri

ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - The Polish government will continue preventing migrants stuck on its border with Belarus from entering the country, Warsaw’s foreign ministry spokesperson told Rudaw on Wednesday, accusing Minsk of exploiting the migrants. 

“Our borders are closed to illegal immigration … We won’t let these people [illegal migrants] in. When you have a home, you have to lock the door. This is what we are doing,” Lukasz Jasina, the spokesperson for the Polish Ministry of Foreign Affairs, told Rudaw’s Shahyan Tahseen on Wednesday. 

“Do not come. We will not let you in. You are crossing the border illegally and you are a victim of Lukashenko,” was his message to migrants attempting to enter Europe through Belarus, referring to Belarusian leader Alexander Lukashenko. 

Thousands of migrants, mostly from the Middle East and Iraq in particular, have tried to cross into European Union nations from Belarus since early last summer. The EU has accused Belarus of orchestrating the influx of migrants to punish it for imposing sanctions against the country. 

Since October 2020, the EU has imposed progressively restrictive measures against Minsk that were adopted in response to concerns over the 2020 presidential elections, and the intimidation and violent repression of peaceful protesters, opposition members, and journalists.

Belarus’ neighbours have fortified their borders against the migrants, leaving thousands desperate in a country they had thought would be an easy gateway to western Europe. 

Belarus' Minister of Foreign Affairs Vladimir Makei said on Wednesday that European countries have deployed 15,000 troops “against crying women and children to prevent them from getting into Europe... I cannot comprehend it. This is a violation of all possible norms.”

Polish PM Mateusz Morawiecki said during a presser with Charles Michel, head of the European Council, on Wednesday that the migration issue is actually a political one.

“The events on the Polish-Belarusian border may look like a migration crisis, but it is a political crisis aimed at the destabilization of the EU. It is also Lukashenko's silent revenge for our support for the democratic elections in Belarus last year,” he said.

Footage circulated on social media shows injured people, but Jasina claimed that Polish border guards do not hurt anyone, adding that the migrants can count on them. “The majority of these people are on the territories of Belarus. We cannot help them. We were trying to send humanitarian convoys to help them but Belarus did not allow them in.”

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The spokesperson also said that they are in talks with Middle East countries, including Iraq, to suspend flights to Belarus but have not reached an agreement. He added that those people stuck on the border had flown from Erbil, Baghdad, Amman, Beirut, and Istanbul to Minsk. 

The Belarusian FM said on Tuesday that there are more than 2,000 migrants on their borders with Poland. 

“This human, humanitarian aspect is of the greatest importance now. All of them come from disadvantaged countries that experienced the intervention of Western states. These refugees directly say that they have no plans to stay in Belarus, they want to apply for asylum in the EU. Instead, people from the other side of the border are using tear gas, shooting over the refugees' heads and bringing large-caliber military weapons to the border,” he told state media.

Dominik Musial, consul general of Poland in Erbil, told Rudaw’s Bijar Zubair on Wednesday that the immigrants trying to enter Poland “have been equipped and prepared to forcibly cross the border.”

"We're evidently dealing with a group of people who are trying to forcibly, force enter into our country," he said. 

Media coverage is portraying the people at the border as "the sole victims of the situation," he added. "I understand they are. They are. But we also need to look at them from a different viewpoint: they are also intruders."


Updated at 11:38 PM