Night Storm, Disgruntled Russians: Migrant Crisis Developing On Border With EU

(Updated) The most important and timely events.

The hot phase of the migrant crisis at the borders of Belarus and the EU countries has been lasting for more than two weeks. Yesterday, there was information about a serious outbreak of COVID-19 in the camp of illegal immigrants. There is also a growing number of conflicts between security officials and “tourists” in the logistics center, which has become a base for migrants.

The website Charter97.org continues to monitor the situation, and has collected the main news related to the progress of the migrant crisis at the borders of Belarus and the EU:

16:30 Lukashenka has taken offense at Merkel. The European Union refused to contact the Belarusian usurper.

16:10 Speculators approached the migrants at the border.

15:29 Berlin declined Minsk's offer to take 2,000 migrants who are on the territory of Belarus.

This was stated by a representative of the German government. Earlier Lukashenka said that he had proposed acting German Chancellor Angela Merkel to take 2,000 migrants to Germany.

14:37 Poland showed how the Belarusian military blinded border guards with a laser.

14:14 The Polish authorities intend to deport about 200 migrants from the country. According to the official representative of the Border Guard of the Republic, Anna Michalskaya, during this week they will be sent home.

“This week we are planning another return of foreigners to their countries of origin. We intend to deport about 200 people, including 10 organizers of illegal migration,” Michalskaya said. According to her, it is mainly about the Iraqis.

13:02 Spokesman for the Coordinating Minister of the Polish Intelligence Services Stanisław Żaryn commented on the night attacks on the Polish border. Yesterday, 346 people tried to illegally cross the Belarusian-Polish border.

“The Belarusian services continue to send aggressive groups of migrants to our border. During attacks on the border line, Belarusian officers support the attempts to illegally enter Poland.

The groups making such attempts, as well as the Belarusian security forces, are becoming more and more aggressive,” Stanisław Żaryn said.

12:21 See how the migrant camp in the warehouse looks right now.

11:33 Lithuania spoke about the new tactics of the Belarusian security forces and illegal immigrants.

“We noticed that the tactics have changed - the Belarusian security forces are pushing small groups of migrants into Lithuania - 3-5 people in each group, this complicates the process of finding these groups, holding and detaining them. However, these people are being detained,” said head of the Lithuanian State Border Guard Service Rustam Lyubaev.

This year, more than 4 thousand illegal migrants have entered Lithuania; since September, more than 7 thousand people have deployed on the border with Belarus.

11:11 The President of Poland Andrzej Duda commented on the situation on the border with Belarus for the newspaper Sieci:

- There are riots on our border today, but this is not a military problem. On the contrary, we have an agreement between the Baltic states that if the moment comes when it becomes necessary to use the fourth article of the NATO treaty, we will do it together.

Thanks to the professionalism and valor of the Polish police, border guards, soldiers of the Polish army, we will endure, and will not give in.

10:11 Belarusian security forces sent 150 illegal immigrants to storm the Polish border. The border guards did not let anyone into the country. In total, 346 attempts of illegal border crossing by different groups of migrants were repulsed during Sunday.

9:55 The authorities complain that illegal immigrants are costing them dearly. A one-day stay of the migrants in a logistics center near the Bruzgi checkpoint, according to the authorities, costs about 20 thousand euros.

“By the smallest standards for Belarusian citizens, such a lower level is 30 rubles a day. If we are speaking of a foreign citizen, then the amount is doubled. Multiply this by 2,000 officially declared refugees. They say they are still arriving. 60,000 Belarusian rubles, which is about 20,000 euros per day. We do not know how long we will hold out. The second group of losses is those losses that we cannot calculate today. This implies extracurricular work of doctors, employees of the Ministry of Emergency Situations, journalists, and the military. These are also expenses of the state, not revenues. Indirect losses. This is the damaged infrastructure on the border, the cut down forest. I don't see any profit yet. You can say whatever you want,” the pro-government expert told reporters.

09:05 Lithuanian Foreign Minister: At present, there are about 2 thousand migrants from Asian and African countries on the Belarusian side near the Lithuanian border.

9:00 Russian business is concerned about the queues of trucks that have formed on the border of Belarus and the European Union. The Russian Foreign Investment Advisory Council has sent a letter to First Deputy Prime Minister Andrei Belousov with a request to help in solving problems of road transportation, Kommersant reports.

According to the newspaper, the signers of the letter warn of possible interruptions in the supply of a number of goods, large retail chains have encountered delays, there is a price risk. The queues are related to the migration crisis. Poland closed the Bruzgi-Kuznica border crossing point two weeks ago after a large group of migrants headed for it. At the next crossing point Brestovica-Bobrowniki, trucks with goods for the Russian Federation were stuck.