Merkel asks Putin to intervene with Belarus over migrants

Chancellor Angela Merkel asked Russian President Vladimir Putin on Wednesday to intervene with Belarus over the migrant situation on that country’s border with Poland.

The chancellor’s office said Ms Merkel spoke with Mr Putin by phone and “underlined the fact that the instrumentalisation of migrants against the European Union by the Belarusian regime is inhuman and completely unacceptable, and asked the Russian president to exert his influence on the regime in Minsk”.

Russia is a close ally of the government in Belarus. Germany is a favoured destination for migrants who arrive in the European Union.

The readout of the call released by the Kremlin said Mr Putin proposed a discussion of the problems that have come up between EU member nations and Belarus. It also said that Mr Putin and Ms Merkel “agreed to continue the conversation on the issue”.

The EU’s executive commission has never allowed EU money to be used to finance walls, fences or barriers but is facing pressure by several member countries to do so now.

European Council president Charles Michel, who oversees the EU’s political agenda and meetings of European leaders, said during a visit to Warsaw on Wednesday that the European Commission would discuss the possibility of financing “physical infrastructure at the borders” in coming days.

During a visit aimed at showing support for Poland, Mr Michel said that Poland was facing a “serious crisis” and a “brutal attack” and deserved solidarity from the rest of the 27-nation EU.

Poland’s Defence Ministry and local police reported that multiple groups of migrants tried to enter the country late on Tuesday and early Wednesday but that all the people who made it were detained.

Hundreds of migrants have been camping since Monday on the Belarus side of the border, near the village of Kuznica.

Poland’s Defence Ministry also accused Belarusian forces of firing shots into the air in a border area where migrants caught between the neighbouring countries have set up a makeshift camp.

The ministry posted a video on Twitter with noises of what sounded like shots.

EU leaders accuse the regime of Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko of opening up a new migration route to Europe to create instability in retaliation for sanctions the bloc imposed on Mr Lukashenko’s authoritarian government.

The EU imposed the sanctions over a brutal crackdown on domestic dissent following Mr Lukashenko’s disputed election to a sixth term in August 2020.

Caught in the bitter political stand-off have been thousands of migrants, some of them families with children, who have been pushed back and forth in a forested area of swamps and bogs at the Poland-Belarus border.

Eight deaths there have been confirmed, and the situation is growing even more dangerous as temperatures drop to below freezing at night.

But the government in Warsaw received support from the United States and from European leaders as large numbers of migrants have used wire cutters and what appeared to be tree trunks or poles to try to force their way into Polish territory.

Belarus’ State Border Guard Committee said in a post on the Telegram messaging app on Wednesday that four men of Kurdish descent in the makeshift migrant camp at the border were injured. The committee accused Poland’s security forces of inflicting the injuries.

“According to the refugees, they were detained on the territory of Poland, where they tried to ask for protection and refugee status. Judging by the numerous injuries.. the Polish security forces mistreated the men and forcibly pushed them out through a barbed fence on the border with Belarus,” read the post accompanied by pictures of bloodied individuals.

It is impossible to independently verify the information. Independent journalists face limits to their reporting in autocratic Belarus, while a state of emergency in Poland also prevents journalists from entering a zone along the border.

Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki, who met with the European Council president on Wednesday, has described the current situation as the first time in 30 years that “the integrity of our borders is being tested”.

Poland threw off Moscow-backed communist rule three decades ago.

Mr Morawiecki also suggested on Tuesday that Russia was behind the migration pressure from Belarus. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov rejected the suggestion as “unacceptable”.

“We consider statements by the Polish prime minister that Russia is responsible for this situation absolutely irresponsible and unacceptable,” Mr Peskov said.

In one of the cases of attempted forced entry, a group of migrants with tools and equipment breached a razor-wire fence late on Tuesday near the village of Bialowieza in north-east Poland, according to local border guards’ spokesman Michal Tokarczyk.

All were detained and returned to the border with Belarus, Mr Tomczyk said.

Humanitarian group workers and local volunteers in the area have been helping migrants who make it across the border, offering them food, water and clothing.

Polish police stopped a group of activists who were on their way to the Poland-Belarus border on Tuesday night as they approached the Kuznica border crossing, German news agency dpa reported.

The activists had planned to pick up migrants in Poland and help them reach Germany. However, the German Interior Ministry warned that “unauthorised transport and possible unauthorised entry” could have criminal consequences, dpa reported.