(AFP) Lithuania said Thursday it would offer migrants a greater cash incentive to return home, as the Baltic state struggles to repatriate thousands who crossed into the EU member from Belarus. Each migrant who voluntarily opts to go back to their country […]
(Reuters) Belarus on Tuesday said its security services did not aggravate the migrant situation at the border by throwing firecrackers or taking other actions as Poland claimed the previous day. The Belarus State Border Committee rejected the allegation by Polish Border Guard […]
(Reuters) Fewer migrants are trying to cross the frontier between Poland and Belarus, but the Polish Border Guard told journalists visiting the previously off-limits border zone on Monday that it still faces provocations from Belarusian forces. Reuters was among a group of […]
(Deutsche Welle) Over 17,000 Afghans filed asylum claims in the European Union, Switzerland and Norway in September of 2021, compared to around 10,000 in August, the European Asylum Support Office (EASO) said on Friday. This represents a 72% increase compared to August, […]
(AP) Top European Union migration officials offered Wednesday to ease the asylum-evaluation rules for Poland, Lithuania and Latvia in response to what the EU has called a “hybrid attack” by Belarus to destabilize the bloc using migrants and refugees. The move would […]
(AP) Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko on Monday accused Lithuanian authorities of dumping the bodies of migrants on the border between the two countries — a claim rejected by Lithuania amid soaring border tensions between Belarus and its European Union neighbors. Lukashenko also […]
(AFP) France’s Prime Minister Jean Castex is preparing to write to British counterpart Boris Johnson with proposals for a new post-Brexit deal on migration with the EU after the disaster in the Channel last week that left 27 migrants dead, a minister […]
(AFP) From her green-painted homestead near the Belarusian border, Lithuanian pensioner Jadvyga Mackevic remembers the day she saw three migrants coming out of the forest and being detained. “I barely saw them through my window. The border patrol immediately caught them,” the […]
(AFP) Belarus’s strongman leader Alexander Lukashenko told migrants on the border with Poland Friday that he would not try to stop them from reaching the European Union, urging Germany to take them in. In footage released by state media, Lukashenko was shown […]
(AP) The number of people trying to enter Europe without authorization has risen significantly this year to surpass migrant border crossing figures from 2019, before restrictions imposed to combat the COVID-19 pandemic severely limited travel, the European Union’s border and coast guard […]
(AP) The leaders of three Central European countries on Tuesday expressed their solidarity with Poland in an ongoing migration crisis on its eastern border with Belarus, and urged the European Union to increase its support for the protection of the bloc’s external […]
(AP) The authoritarian leader of Belarus on Monday sharply criticized the European Union for its refusal to hold talks on the influx of migrants on the country’s border with Poland. Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko urged Germany to accommodate about 2,000 migrants who […]
(BBC) Belarus’s authoritarian leader has told the BBC it is “absolutely possible” his forces helped migrants cross into Poland but denies they were invited. Thousands of migrants, mainly from the Middle East, have been trying to get into the EU via Belarus […]
(Reuters) France will push for action on migration when it hosts the European Union presidency from January, President Emmanuel Macron was quoted as saying on Thursday, and he vowed to quickly crack down on illegal migrant camps in northern France. France takes […]
(AP) Hundreds of Iraqis returned home Thursday from Belarus after abandoning their hopes of reaching the European Union — a repatriation that came after tensions at Poland’s eastern border, where thousands of migrants became stuck in a cold and soggy forest. Many […]
(AFP) Belarus on Thursday said there were around 7,000 migrants in the ex-Soviet country, with around 2,000 of them camped on the border with EU member Poland. Thousands of mainly Middle Eastern migrants are camped around the border in what the West […]
(AP) Hundreds of migrants who were camped in the cold on the Poland-Belarus border have been moved to a nearby warehouse in Belarusian territory, reports said Wednesday, with some still harboring hopes of entering the European Union. The move came a day […]
(AFP) The European Union should be prepared for more migrant crises like the ones on the Greece-Turkey and Poland-Belarus borders, the head of the EU’s border agency told AFP in an interview. Frontex chief Fabrice Leggeri also said the agency was working […]
(AP) Polish forces at the border with Belarus used water cannons and tear gas Tuesday against stone-throwing migrants, as Warsaw accused Belarusian authorities of giving smoke grenades and other weapons to those trying to cross the frontier. The events marked an escalation […]
(AFP) Aryan Wali Zellmi, a 25-year-old Iraqi Kurd, had tried twice to enter the European Union through Belarus. This time, he got stuck on the freezing border with Poland, joining hundreds in a crisis that the EU blames on Minsk. Zellmi is […]
(Politico) European Council President Charles Michel turned heads Wednesday when he claimed the EU could legally fund border barriers — calling into question a long-standing EU refusal to allow such financing. “Based on an opinion of the Legal Service of the Council, […]
(AP) European Union officials on Wednesday accused Belarus of state-sponsored “trafficking” of human lives by luring desperate migrants to the Polish border — the edge of the EU — where many are now stuck in makeshift camps in freezing weather. As the […]
(AP) Poland reinforced its border with Belarus with more riot police on Tuesday, a day after groups of migrants tried to storm through a razor-wire fence on the eastern frontier where thousands have camped on the Belarusian side in the tense standoff. […]
(AP) Hundreds if not thousands of migrants sought to storm the border from Belarus into Poland on Monday, cutting razor wire fences and using branches to try and climb over them. The siege escalated a crisis along the European Union’s eastern border […]
(Reuters) Lithuania has built the first stretches of a steel wall on its border with Belarus since migrants from the Middle East and other areas began entering from Belarus this year. The European Union accuses Belarus of deliberately encouraging the migrants to […]
(AP) German police said on Monday that they registered more than 5,000 unauthorized border crossings last month by people who had arrived from Belarus, marking a significant uptick in the number of arrivals through a new and politically sensitive migration route. Federal […]
(AFP) Polish lawmakers on Friday gave the go-ahead to build a controversial wall on the EU member’s eastern border with Belarus, in response to an unprecedented wave of migrants, mostly from the Middle East. The wall will cost an estimated 353 million […]
(Reuters) Poland is increasing the number of troops on its border with Belarus to around 10,000, its defence minister said on Monday, as the country tries to stem a surge in migration which it blames on Minsk. Hundreds of people from places […]
(AP) European Union leaders pledged on Friday to “keep up the pressure” on Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko to halt the flow of migrants from his country and raised the prospect of new sanctions amid calls by some bloc members to build walls […]
(AFP) Germany has suggested increasing joint patrols along its border with Poland in response to increasing numbers of migrants arriving via Belarus, according to a letter seen by AFP on Tuesday. The presence of border forces should be “noticeably” increased, German Interior […]
(AP) European Union foreign ministers looked at ways on Monday to stop the illegal migration into the 27-nation bloc from neighboring Belarus, including stopping companies from leasing jets to Belarusian airline Belavia. The EU has accused the government of Belarusian President Alexander […]
(AP) The United Nations refugee agency on Friday expressed deep concern about legislation Poland adopted this week allowing the arbitrary rejection of migrants’ asylum applications. The new legislation, approved by parliament on Thursday, came in response to the presence of hundreds of […]
(Baltic Times) Migrants suspected of being linked to terrorist organizations have been isolated and pose no threat, Lithuanian Defense Minister Arvydas Anusauskas and Laurynas Kasciunas, chairman of the parliamentary Committee on National Security and Defense, said on Friday. Speaking with journalists in […]
(AFP) Poland’s parliament on Thursday passed a legal amendment allowing migrants to be pushed back at the border and for asylum claims made by those who entered illegally to be ignored. Lawmakers also gave the green light to a government plan to […]
(AP) Germany’s foreign minister says airlines that fly would-be migrants to the European Union to Belarus should ask themselves whether they want to be part of a “smuggling ring” run by the country’s authoritarian leader. Foreign Minister Heiko Maas’ comments Thursday to […]
(AP) German authorities said Wednesday that the number of migrants arriving in the country via Poland and Belarus has gone up during the months that several European Union nations have accused the Belarusian government of encouraging people to cross into the EU […]
(Reuters) Poland plans to spend over 1.6 billion zlotys ($404 million) on building a wall on its border with Belarus, according to a draft bill lawmakers are due to discuss on Wednesday, in a bid to stem the flow of migrants trying […]
(AP) Greece will increase the number of border guards on the country’s border with Turkey, fearing a spike in illegal migration linked to the crisis in Afghanistan, officials said Monday. An additional 250 officers will join the 1,500-strong border force over several […]
(Reuters) The European Union’s executive called for an investigation on Thursday into illegal migrant pushbacks after a report by German media outlets Der Spiegel and ARD documented what they said were Greek and Croatian officials carrying out such operations. The joint report […]
(AP) The European Union should take “specific actions” to stop Belarus “pushing” migrants across its border into Polish territory, Poland’s president said on Thursday. President Andrzej Duda didn’t outline what those actions might be, but said he’s hoping for assistance beyond what […]
(AP) Belarus’ exiled opposition leader Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya on Wednesday urged the global community to stop a “humanitarian catastrophe” which she said is being created by the Belarusian regime facilitating largescale migration into the European Union. Thousands of migrants from Syria, Iraq, Afghanistan […]
(AP) The government of Poland is working to warn potential migrants that the country’s border with Belarus is sealed and is not a passage into the European Union, a deputy foreign minister said Tuesday. Poland’s diplomats in Middle Eastern and African countries […]
(AP) Lawmakers in Belarus have voted to suspend an agreement with the European Union obliging the ex-Soviet nation to take back migrants that crossed its territory into the EU. The vote late Monday in the upper house of the Belarusian parliament formalizes […]
(Reuters) Poland carried out an unlawful pushback of a group of migrants camped out on its border with Belarus in late August, an analysis of satellite imagery and other photos and videos by NGO Amnesty International published on Thursday said. Amnesty said […]
(Baltic Times) The migrant suspected of having had ties with terrorists has been already sent out of Lithuania, Interior Minister Agne Bilotaite has confirmed. “Yes, that person is definitely no longer in the Republic of Lithuania,” she told ministers on Tuesday. In […]
(AFP) Poland’s interior minister on Monday asked for a state of emergency along the border with Belarus to be extended for 60 days as the EU slammed migrant deaths on that stretch and demanded explanations from Warsaw. The emergency measures adopted earlier […]
(AP) Two United Nations agencies requested access Tuesday to asylum-seekers stranded at Belarus’s border with Poland and Lithuania, after four migrants were found dead in the area. The International Organization for Migration and the U.N. Refugee Agency called on the governments involved […]
(AP) Poland is sending 500 additional army troops and special vehicles to its border with Belarus to strengthen it against increasing migrant pressures which the government says is orchestrated by Belarus and Russia to destabilize the European Union. “We are dealing with […]
(Politico) Fifteen minutes outside the town of Vathy stands a just-completed compound, surrounded by a double barbed-wire fence. The entrance, only open from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m., is equipped with turnstiles, magnetic gates and X-ray machines. Guards check both ID cards […]
(AP) The prime ministers of Poland and Lithuania said Friday that tighter security at their borders with Belarus was the best way to ease pressure from migrant inflows there, as they expect what they called a “hybrid attack” from Belarus to continue. […]
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