Migrants warm themselves at a fire as they gather at the Belarus-Poland border near Grodno, Belarus, Saturday, Nov. 13, 2021. A large number of migrants are in a makeshift camp on the Belarusian side of the border in frigid conditions. Belarusian state news agency Belta reported that Lukashenko on Saturday ordered the military to set up tents at the border where food and other humanitarian aid can be gathered and distributed to the migrants. (Leonid Shcheglov/BelTA pool photo via AP)
Migrant carry firewood as they gather at the Belarus-Poland border near Grodno, Belarus, Sunday, Nov. 14, 2021.Poland’s prime minister says Poland, Lithuania and Latvia are considering asking NATO for emergency talks as they struggle to manage a tense standoff on their borders with Belarus. The EU nations say Belarus is orchestrating a migrant crisis on their borders in retaliation for EU sanctions on Belarus for cracking down on democracy protesters. (Oksana Manchuk/BelTA pool photo via AP).
BRUSSELS (AP) — European Union foreign ministers are expected Monday to decide to expand sanctions against Belarus to include airlines, travel agents and individuals alleged to be helping to lure migrants to Europe as part of a “hybrid attack” against the bloc by President Alexander Lukashenko.
The 27-country EU has already slapped a series of sanctions on Lukashenko and senior Belarus officials over what the bloc says were fraudulent elections last August that illegitimately returned him to power and a security crackdown on the opposition and peaceful protesters that followed.
The ministers are set to adjust the kinds of sanctions that can be imposed to include airlines and travel agents allegedly involved in the migrant standoff at Belarus’s borders with Poland, Latvia and Lithuania. Those to be hit by the measures, which involve asset freezes and travel bans, should be named in coming days.
The EU says that the authoritarian Belarusian regime for months invited migrants to Minsk, many of them Iraqis, with the promise of helping them cross the borders into the three countries, which form the eastern flank of both the 27-nation EU and NATO.
In response, the three have been reinforcing their borders. In an interview Sunday, Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki said he and his two Baltic counterparts are discussing whether to call for emergency consultations at the NATO military alliance.
Source: mynorthwest.com