A makeshift migrant camp on Belarus’ border with Poland has been cleared, Minsk said on Thursday, as hundreds of Iraqis who failed to make the crossing to enter the EU returned home.
Hope for de-escalating the crisis, which has seen thousands camping in desperate conditions on the border for weeks, had been mounting in the past few days, after German Chancellor Angela Merkel spoke with Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko twice by telephone.
The EU accuses Belarus of engineering the situation at the border in retaliation for sanctions on the ex-Soviet country. Minsk and its main ally, Russia, have rejected the charges and criticized the EU for not taking in the migrants seeking to cross over.
Photo: AFP
About 2,000 people, mainly Iraqi Kurds, had been stuck in freezing temperatures at a camp in the woods near Brouzgui crossing point, hoping to pass into EU member state Poland.
Belarus said the camp had been cleared, with its occupants relocated “on a voluntary basis” to a nearby reception center, where they were given hot food and warm clothes. Pictures of the camp appearing abandoned were released and Polish authorities confirmed it had been emptied.
The relocation occurred the same day as the first repatriation flight from Belarus, carrying 431 people, landed in Iraq.
“The situation was very bad, we had to eat grass and leaves from the trees, and it was cold,” one returning resident of Erbil, Iraq, said.
In another sign of the grim conditions at the border, a Polish non-governmental organization said it had found a Syrian couple who had lost their one-year-old child while sleeping in the forest on the border for a month.
The flight came a day after the second of Merkel and Lukashenko’s calls — the first time the Belarusian leader has spoken with a Western leader since disputed presidential elections last year.
On Thursday, Lukashenko’s spokeswoman Natalya Eismont said that there were about 7,000 migrants in the country, including those at the border.
Belarus would take responsibility for sending 5,000 of the migrants home if they want to go, she said, adding that Merkel would negotiate with the EU to create a humanitarian corridor to Germany.
Berlin denied any agreement with Lukashenko on the possibility of such a corridor, saying it “stood by” its neighbor Poland.
Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki earlier cautioned against holding direct talks with Minsk, saying it would legitimize Lukashenko’s regime.
The Polish government has also warned against any agreement on the crisis that might be struck “over our heads.”
Warsaw said that if Minsk did not resolve the crisis by tomorrow, it would halt rail traffic with Belarus.
The Polish border guard on Thursday said that 200 migrants were detained after entering the country illegally, part of a group of about 500 who had attempted the crossing.
The Polish Ministry of National Defence said that Belarusian special forces had led the attempt, adding that they had first carried out reconnaissance and “most likely” damaged the barbed wire fence along the border.
“Then the Belarusians forced the migrants to throw stones at Polish soldiers to distract them. The attempt to cross the border took place several hundred meters away,” it said.
It added that a family of five people, including three children aged 7 to 9, had been injured in the incident and were taken to hospital.
Polish media said that at least 11 migrants have died since the crisis began in August.
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