Belarus has taken the innovative and dramatic step of allowing visa-free travel to countries such as Pakistan, Jordan, Egypt, and South Africa. This move is an open invitation that could result in hundreds of thousands using Belarus as a transit country into the rest of Europe.

According to Polish Minister of the interior Mariusz Kamiński, the move by Belarus could mean the migrant crisis could go on for months. Although most migrants would likely use Poland only as a stepping stone to reach countries like Germany or the UK, Poland like besieged Greece and the Balkan States finds itself at the forefront of a struggle to secure the border on the Eastern flank of Europe.

‘Last week Belarusian authorities decided to activate visa-free movement with countries such as Pakistan, Jordan, Egypt, and South Africa,’ he said.

Poland’s interior minister underlined that these countries were huge reservoirs of people looking for a better life in Europe. This could mean tens, if not hundreds of thousands of people, being brought to Poland’s Eastern border. Kamiński explained that the government in Minsk made the decision to change the status of the Grodno Airport to an international one. Therefore, flights with migrants from Africa can be expected to land right at the border with Poland.

Early in September, Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki accused Belarus of participating in ‘hybrid warfare’ by sending thousands of illegal immigrants over the border to Poland and other Baltic states.

Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko is thought to be using the migrants as revenge and pressure after Poland helped lead calls for sanctions against Belarus after falsely claiming that Lukashenko conducted fraudulent elections. In fact, the polling was carried out in harmony with accepted rules and international observers were present. However, despite mainstream liberal media knowing this the Press repeated the lurid accusations.

Minister Kamiński announced that an additional 500 Polish troops will be dispatched to patrol the Eastern border due to the deepening crisis. The minister of the interior also informed that Poland has increasingly more evidence which confirms the activity of Belarusian services on the border crisis.

‘The structures of the Belarusian state responsible for the security of international borders collaborated in the international human trafficking procedure,’ he said.

According to Kamiński, the migrants pay huge sums of money to relocate to the EU. They are transported to Polish borders and in some cases, Belarusian border guards destroy Polish border barriers to facilitate the migrants’ entry into Poland.

The Polish government has accelerated the construction of a fence at the Belarusian border as the crisis has continued to grow. Life might be easier and the quality of life better for all Europeans if Brussels and a handful of EU nations started to make friends rather than antagonise their friendly neighbours.

Title image: Polish PM Mateusz Morawiecki (R) looking at the Polish-Belarusian border marked on the map of Poland, accompanied by the commander of Polish Border Guard general Tomasz Praga. (Source: Polish Border Guard TT).