Migrants seeking asylum in the EU are currently stuck in Belarus and facing multiple human rights abuses. The Belarusian government invites these migrants who are often from worn-torn and impoverished countries in the Middle, Africa, Asia, and other regions. After arriving in Belarus, they are taken to the Belarus-Poland border, and soldiers attempt to help them cross into Poland. Poland has responded to this by declaring a state of emergency and sending security to the border to stop these migrants from entering the country. Migrants describe the Belarusian border as pure hell. They state that they are kept in a space without shelter, food, or water and that they are not allowed to return to their home countries. International and local NGOs want Poland to allow them to access the border where refugees are being held so that they can provide supplies and medical aid, but Poland’s state of emergency prevents this. European Union officials accuse Belarus’s actions of attempting to destabilize the European Union by facilitating irregular migration for political purposes. They believe that this is the revenge of Alexander Lukashenko, the Belarusian president, for the sanctions that were placed on him because of his crackdown on his opposition. While Lukashenko may be weaponizing refugee migration in order to fight back against sanctions, Europe’s increasingly hostile attitude towards refugees may prevent him from getting what he wants.
Kelly Greenhill wrote in her book Weapons of Mass Migration: Forced Displacement, Coercion, and Foreign Policy that since 1951 there have been at least 56 cases of countries attempting to coerce other states by using migrations, and this tactic usually works. She argues that this works because of the division that is created between the group of people that are sympathetic towards the refugees and the group of people who do not want them to be allowed into the country. States end up complying to the demands of the coercive state in order to resolve the problem (Greenhill 2010). The problem this time, however, is that there might not be a large enough group of people who are sympathetic towards the refugees to create the division that Lukashenko wants. Attitudes towards Islamic refugees have grown increasingly hostile throughout Europe. Many European right leaning parties such as the Law and Justice Party in Poland and the AfD in Germany have come into power by using populist rhetoric that paints the native population as the pure people who are under attack by the “enemy,” a category the refugees often fall under. It does not help that the refugees currently stuck in Belarus are often Muslim, a group of people that are frequently scapegoated. Studies show that Muslim asylum seekers are 11 percant less likely to be accepted than Christian asylum seekers (Bansak et al 2016).
The growing nationalistic sentiments and Islamophobia in Europe might prevent Lukashenko from achieving what he wished for by weaponizing refugees, but unfortunately, the people who will suffer the most are the refugees who were brought to Belarus with the promises of being granted asylum and are currently stuck in the country while their human rights are being severely violated. It is hard to say what the EU should do in this situation, but while the situation stalls out refugees continue to suffer.
Hi Tay! Your blog post was so informational and clear to understand! I did not know that there were migrants seeking asylum who were stuck in Belarus. It is devastating to see that many of these migrants face human rights abuses. Action needs to be taken in order to control Belarus and its actions on the migrants. In order to control the actions done by the country, the main focus has to be placed on the leader of the country, which is the Belarusian president, Alexander Lukashenko. As you described this was a set-up or more so a “revenge” plan of Lukashenko, this shows that it definitely hurts the country’s government. It most likely caused some form of polarization to occur, which ended up causing violence to fire up. This can be analyzed as some groups were divided with the opinion that refugees and migrants should be allowed into the country. This can also show backsliding to occur as it causes people to feel like they do not belong, (targeting the migrants). As Belarus is a part of the European Union, the union needs to take action towards the leader and the country as a whole. The main reason is that it could be a sign of human rights being violated for the people in the country.
Based on the Refugee Convention in Geneva in 1951, it was concluded that refugees were not to be returned to countries where they were made to “face serious threats to their life or freedom”. As a result of this conclusion, this has been considered customary international law ever since. The problem with customary international law is that it is based on international expectation, not any written form of official legal obligation in the form of a treaty. Here, this seems to be the primary issue. Poland’s government has decided to neglect their international responsibility because it is not legally required of them. Because of the extreme human rights abuses being faced by the people fleeing Belarus, this attitude on the behalf of Poland is a complete and utter disregard for their moral obligation.
The fact that this awful situation is being politicized to the degree in which it has in order to divide the people is even worse. My question is, what is Alexander Lukashenko hoping to get out of causing this division in Poland? Especially considering that the majority of Poland citizens are against taking in Belarus refugees, what is Lukashenko attempting to gain by creating this refugee chaos? Is he hoping to stir up further division with Poland? Is he hoping to go to war with Poland? Considering that Poland is militarizing their borders, that seems to be the direction it is headed. Maybe not outright war, but conflict with Poland for sure. So, why does Lukashenko want this? What is his reasoning or political agenda?
Also, in response to the statistics on muslim asylum seekers being the least likely to be accepted, especially in comparison to Christians, that is really upsetting. If there is any evidence of them being connected to a rebel group, that’s one thing, but for there to be hesitation surrounding accepting someone who is experiencing extreme persecution or human rights abuses merely based on the fact that they are muslim, that is beyond my comprehension.
Hi, Tay! I found your post to be very inciteful and informative. Prior to reading this post, I was not up to date on the status of asylum seekers and migrants in Belarus. Mudde’s definition of populism states that the phenomenon is a “thin-centered ideology” where people are separated into two groups, the “pure people” and the “corrupt elite.” Migrants do not fit under the traditional idea of “pure people” under populism, and this reality makes them a useful “enemy” for populist leaders. These populist leaders, like Lukashenko in Belarus, can frame asylum seekers as a tool of the corrupt elite. If leaders such as Lukashenko can convince their base that migrants are counterintuitive to the general will of the people, human rights abuses can be overlooked.
The ability of populist leaders to frame migrants as the enemy becomes much more likely when the migrants are very different from the “pure people.” In one of the studies you mention, the researchers found that Muslim asylum seekers are 11 percent less likely to be accepted than Christian asylum seekers. This statistic supports your analysis well. While weaponizing migrants and asylum seekers for political gain is morally disgusting, this facet of populism has allowed leaders such as Lukashenko to be widely successful in the past. Huge masses of irregular migration can lead to undeniable hardships for economies, and this reality must be considered when a state determines how many migrants they can accept. However, denying people because they do not fall under the state’s view of “pure people” in unacceptable, and Belarus’s treatment of migrants should not go unpunished by the international community.
Hi Tay! I am really glad that you wrote about this, especially given that I previously had no knowledge of the situation. My first impression of this was curiosity towards why Poland is hesitant towards taking these refugees in, but then I realized that Belarus is contributing to the issue as well. Why don’t they take in the migrants themselves? Hearing that this has turned into a political issue, rather than viewing it as a matter of human rights, is really bothersome. These migrants are refugees, after all, simply looking for a better place to live. Instead, they are forced into rough living conditions with multiple human rights abuses. The issue of how a state treats it’s migrants can be attributed to multiple countries, the United States included. However, what makes this case so difficult to break down is the fact that Poland might be able to take in these refugees and that Belarus is treating humans as bargaining tools. When you are dealing with human rights, the issue shouldn’t become political — it is a matter of human decency. The conflict between the two countries is simply about sympathy. That is, they want to see who will cave first: are politics more important to them, or is it doing what is right for these migrants? I am stunned by how many states use this as a political tactic. People should not be subject to political gain and it is especially troublesome to see that a large part of this issue can be attributed to Islamophobia. These leaders should feel morally obligated to take in refugees. The European Union needs to take action — while this conflict continues, human rights continue to be abused and migrants face uncertainty about their future. The fact that I was not aware of this issue makes me believe that more attention needs to be called to this and accountability needs to be taken.
This blog post was very interesting to me, as I have actually done a little bit of research on the Belarusian border crisis as a news editor for the student-led foreign affairs publication The Loch Johnson Society. As you mentioned, Afghan refugees have been stuck at the Polish-Belarusian border for quite some time, which has led to political turmoil in Poland, as Polish border guards won’t allow the refugees into the country, and Belarusian soldiers are refusing to allow the refugees retreat. This situation is made more difficult considering that the Belarusian government plans to fly refugees from the Middle East and send them across Belarusian borders to other European countries to exert pressure on the European Union. Additionally, in November, the European Union decided to broaden its sanctions against the Belursian government for the ongoing migrant crisis at the country’s border, where thousands of Middle Eastern migrants have been abandoned. It is most unfortunate that the hapless circumstances Middle Eastern refugees find themselves in is being utilized by Lukashenko as a means to fight against the European Union, who has had conflict with the country since at least 2015 given its human rights violations regarding the border crisis and its authoritarian government. I also believe it is rather poignant that you described the Belarusian border crisis as underscoring the rise of right-wing populism in Eastern European states such as Poland, Germany, and of course Belarus. These two situations are certainly at least somewhat connected, as the far-right in Europe has never really had much sympathy for refugees and asylum seekers coming from the Middle East, which is a trait becoming increasingly clear in recent years.
Tay,
This is such a concise and effective reading regarding this crisis. I lacked prior knowledge regarding the migrants and their situations at the Polish-Belarusian border. The description provided that states that the conditions were comparable to hell was extremely hard to process and saddening. It comes as no shock that migrants and their situations are often utilized as features of political warfare. The touchy and personalized politics present in the Belarusian government appear to be having a large impact on how the country is functioning as a whole. It is certainly not helping that Islamophobia remains largely present in Europe, escalating the disheartening conditions of those who are already subjected to disturbing elements. The statistic you provided regarding the lower likelihood of acceptance that Muslim asylum seekers are subjected to reflects on how limiting the mindset prevalent throughout Europe truly is and how large of an impact it has on those who are searching for refuge.
Tay, I learned a lot from reading this post. While I knew there was a migration crisis in Belarus, I did not know the extent of it. It is appalling that a leader like Lukashenko can justify using these vulnerable people as a pawn to help him achieve his political goals. These people have already been through so much in their home countries that they needed to seek asylum in another country, and now they are undergoing even more human rights violations because Lukashenko is using them to push his political agenda. It always makes me sick to think about leaders like this having no remorse for violating human rights. It is a very hard situation to address and I think foreign invention will definitely be needed to stop this abuse. I think that it is the responsibility of the other members of the European Union to intervene and help the refugees suffering in Belarus. I also think that the media needs to do a better job informing the global public of what exactly is going on in Belarus as well as why it is happening so that this problem can be prevented from happening in the future.
Hi Tay! This is a very educational post, however very sad to learn more about. It is even more sad that major news networks around the world are not reporting on this humanitarian tragedy to gain traction and possible help. These people are insanely vulnerable, many with lack of resources or basic necessities. It would be interesting to see countries from Europe chip in and allow people in their countries, however that does not look likely. It seems as though cultural neglect could also have to do with the lack of empathy that is being shown at the border. What do you think the best route would be to help relieve the issue? And, what other countries have been impacted by this move of people? This would be really interesting to build upon your post as it is. Overall, this was a very concise and well throughout post that allowed me to understand what current event is going on. Great job.
Tay, this is a really interesting and heartbreaking post. I had no idea that this was the current situation in Belarus in terms of migrants. It is so devastating to know that these are the conditions that migrants are going through and I find out so inhumane that they do not have shelter, food, or water. The fact that they have described it as “pure hell” says it all. I truly do not understand what Poland would have to lose from allowing these migrants to be given access to essentials and I think it shows how they are putting politics first. Alexander Lukashenko is acting in a completely self-interested way, and it is hurting so many. The way he is using this situation for his own purpose is so meticulous and evil. I think that this will only further drive conflict with Belarus and Poland and divide even more people.