DISINFO: Brussels blamed Minsk for the migration crisis, but the West is the only responsible
SUMMARY
Brussels blamed Minsk for the migration crisis, but the West is the only responsible. The problem of irregular migratory flows at the EU-Belarus border is in fact due to the Western policies, including decades of military interventions in the Middle East and North Africa.
RESPONSE
Recurring pro-Kremlin disinformation narrative accusing the West of causing migration crisis on the border of Belarus with Lithuania, Latvia and Poland.
In 2021, Lithuania, Poland and Latvia faced an influx of irregular migrants from Belarus. Earlier, Belarus had ended cooperation with the EU to stem illegal migration. This was Lukashenka's answer to the European Union sanctions on the political regime of Belarus (read more about sanctions here). Lukashenka's regime is using migrants from the Middle East as "political and hybrid" tools against Lithuania and the entire EU.
Investigative journalists have proven that some migrants arrive in Belarus by commercial flights from Baghdad to Minsk. Information gathered also suggests that migrants are regularly transported by bus to the Belarusian-Lithuanian border. More information about Lukashenka's role in the organisation of the current migration crisis can be found here and here.
On 15 November 2021, the EU broadened the scope for sanctions to tackle hybrid attacks and instrumentalisation of migrants. The EU will now be able to target individuals and entities organising or contributing to activities by the Lukashenka regime that facilitate the illegal crossing of the EU's external borders. This came amid the growing instrumentalisation of migration by the Belarusian authorities.
Read other disinformation cases about the ongoing migration crisis on the Belarusian border claiming that Lithuanian border guards use violence against migrants, including abandoning pregnant women, that migrants in Lithuania are kept in concentration camps in unsanitary conditions, and that the West is responsible for the migration crisis on EU-Belarus borders.