Belarusian leader Alexander Lukashenko has hit back at European sanctions, stating he won't stop the flow of irregular migrants across the Belarus-Poland border. In a surprising turn, China and President Xi Jinping have now also been drawn into the EU border and migration debate as Poland leverages a key Chinese-European trade route via Belarus.
Belarus has no intention of stopping migrants from crisis-affected regions passing through the country as a transit route to the European Union, President Alexander Lukashenko stated in an interview with Russian television on Monday (August 19).
"You place a noose around my neck in the form of sanctions and then demand that I protect the EU from the flow of these migrants? That won't happen," German news agency dpa quoted Lukashenko as saying.
EU officials, particularly in Poland, have accused Russian President Vladimir Putin and his ally Lukashenko of intentionally facilitating the movement of irregular migrants to the EU since 2021, providing them with visas and transport assistance. The primary migration route runs from Belarus to Poland’s border. Brussels has accused Belarus of using migrants as a "political weapon" to put pressure on the bloc in retaliation to EU sanctions on Minsk.
In June, Polish Foreign Minister Radosław Sikorski declared: "The aim is to show all of Europe that the EU's external border is not being controlled to cause a political effect: boosting the extreme right that promises to topple Europe from within."
Poland bolstered much of its border with a 5.5-meter-high fence equipped with electronic surveillance. Despite these measures, however, attempts to cross the border continue daily, with Polish border guards reporting 201 irregular crossing incidents over three days this week alone.
Meanwhile, Germany’s federal police recorded 3,117 irregular entries via the Belarus route in the first half of the year, the German news agency dpa reported. In 2022, a total of 11,932 people entered through this route.
Also read: Poland to redeploy no-go buffer zone at Belarus border
Poland pressures China to rein in Lukashenko by leveraging key European trade route
In June, Polish President Andrzej Duda raised the issue of irregular migration at the Belarus-Poland border during a meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping, German news outlet the Tagesspiegel reported. The report cites Lukasz Wojdyga, Director of the Center for Strategic Studies at the Warsaw Enterprise Institute (WEI), from his newsletter Poland Globally.
Duda reportedly urged Xi to use his influence on Belarusian leader Alexander Lukashenko, warning that Poland might be forced to close its border with Belarus entirely.
Since then, the number of irregular migrants entering Poland from Belarus has "significantly decreased," Wojdyga stated. The drop is largely attributed to China's reliance on an open trade route through Belarus to transport goods to the EU. Rail transport is the quickest option, with shipments taking 26 days, according to Wojdyga.
As a result of missile attacks by Houthi rebels in Yemen, the Suez Canal has become a less viable shipping route, forcing trade vessels to opt for the longer and more costly journey around the southern tip of Africa, which takes approximately 41 days.
Additionally, the land route through Ukraine is blocked due to the ongoing war with Russia. As a result, the rail transit of Chinese goods via Russia and Belarus has become a critical revenue stream for both nations, Wojdyga said.
Also read: Poland: Government pledges to do what is needed to end Belarus border problems