Rzeczpospolita: Belarusian border guards smuggle illegal migrants to EU

Polish  Rzeczpospolita states the Belarusian authorities deliberately weakened control over illegal migrants on the western border.

There were more illegal immigrants who crossed the Polish border from January to March 2012 than in 12 months of 2011. “Belarusian border guards accompany them to the border with Poland, which is the border with the EU,” the paper claims referring to dwellers of Polish near-border districts, who heard this from migrants.

Polish border guards say their Belarusian partners began to behave differently. Earlier, Poles informed Belarusians about the detained migrants, analyzed traces and the crossing point together and returned migrants to Belarus, because they had arrived from there. Now Poles continue to inform Belarusians, but the latter say they did not notice anything suspicious, including traces. Illegal migrants remain in Poland in special centres.

Alyaksandr Lukashenka scared Europe several times deluge of migrants could go through Belarus. Europe spends significant sums on border security. According to the EU Delegation in Minsk, the European Commission allocated over 50m euros for this purpose in the last 10 years. Around 40m euros are planned to be spend on border control in the nearest years. If the information Belarus intentionally blackmails Europe with illegal migrants is confirmed, the Belarusian Border Committee may lose the money it receives from Europe.