Several dozen people from the Belarusian diaspora in Bialystok recently came to the very center of the city to show that they disagree with what is happening in Belarus.
“We are shocked by the way the regime uses migrants as pressure on the European Union. It is open blackmail, demanding the recognition of the dictator as the elected president. But what we see on the border is only the tip of the iceberg, it is happening before the eyes of the world. And in the darkness of Belarusian prisons, violence and lawlessness continue. There are more than 1,000 political prisoners there. They are tortured, beaten and killed. We urge the international community not to fall for the blackmail of the dictator, to recognize him and his associates as terrorists, and to continue putting pressure on his regime,” reads the statement of the Belarusian diaspora in Bialystok.
This year, Poland, Lithuania, and Latvia have recorded the largest ever flow of irregular migration through the territory of Belarus. EU countries accuse Lukashenka’s regime of facilitating irregular migration to Europe and deliberately bringing migrants from the Middle East to the border. The West calls the actions of official Minsk a hybrid war.
In November, there was an escalation of the migration crisis on the Belarusian-Polish border. On November 16, a group of migrants at the Bruzgi-Kuznica crossing attacked Polish border guards to enter Polish territory illegally. The attackers threw rocks and objects resembling stun grenades at the Polish side. The video, published by the Polish Ministry of Defense, shows Belarusian law enforcers standing behind the migrants and preventing them from leaving the border. It was possible to stop the migrants on the Belarusian-Polish border after the Polish authorities used tear gas and water cannon.
