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1 1 (December 13, 2021)

handle is hein.crs/goveezq0001 and id is 1 raw text is: Congressional Researh Service Inforrning the I egislative debate sin Ce 1914 Updated December 13, 2021 Migrant Crisis on the Belarus-Poland Border Since May 2021, Belarusian authorities have been accused of facilitating migration flows-mainly from Iraq but also from Syria, Afghanistan, and other countries in the Middle East and Africa-to Belarus and on to Belarus's borders with neighboring European Union (EU) member states Lithuania and Poland (and, to a lesser extent, Latvia). See Figure 1. From August 2021, the Belarus-Poland border has served as the focal point for people seeking to reach the EU via Belarus. Media reports have cited both individuals who attempted the journey and European officials as stating that Belarusian state-run agencies encouraged and organized travel. They also reported that Belarusian security forces escorted people to the border, prevented them from leaving, and facilitated destruction of border fencing. The crisis heightened in mid-November 2021 but then diminished, at least for the present. Several thousand migrants or asylum seekers remain in Belarus, and many reportedly continue to seek to cross the border. The crisis that Belarus's purported actions provoked has raised U.S. and international concerns about the use of migrants or refugees for political ends. The developments relate to several issues of interest to Congress, including Belarusian authorities' human rights abuses and violations of international law, the use of so-called hybrid operations against U.S. allies in Europe, Russia's role in such operations, Russia's deepening military presence in and around Belarus and Ukraine, and humanitarian and legal concerns about the treatment of migrants and refugees. Belarus: A Hybrid Attack? Since 2020, the EU and the United States have imposed sanctions on Belarus in response to a crackdown on a mass protest movement in the wake of a fraudulent presidential election. They also have imposed sanctions in response to Belarus's forced diversion of an international flight in May 2021 to detain a Belarusian dissident living abroad. In response to Western pressure, Belarus's leader Alexander Lukashenko suggested in May 2021 that Belarus would no longer stop migrants and drugs from entering the EU. At the end of June 2021, Lukashenko announced the suspension of a Belarus-EU readmission agreement, which required Belarus to accept the return of migrants who had transited Belarus to the EU. In August, Lukashenko said the EU had put us in such conditions that we have to react. And we are reacting ... in the best way we can. On November 12, 2021, after having been granted access by Belarusian authorities, the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and International Organization for Migration (IOM) reported the presence along the Belarus- Poland border of approximately 2,000 asylum seekers, migrants, and refugees, including women and children, many of whom had been stranded for weeks. Makeshift camps on the Belarusian side near the border crossing point did not have adequate shelter, food, water, or medical care. At least 10 people reportedly died from exposure. Figure I. Belarus-EU Border p Di Source: Map created by CRS. On November 16, some groups in the camps reportedly threw stones and other projectiles and sought to breach the border. Polish forces used water cannons and tear gas to disperse the crowd. Then-German Chancellor Angela Merkel spoke with Lukashenko by telephone the next day (their second call that week). Subsequently, Belarusian authorities cleared the border area and provided migrants with shelter and relief items. The government of Iraq, which ceased air travel to Belarus in August 2021, arranged an initial return flight for more than 400 migrants; other countries' airlines imposed new restrictions on flights to Belarus. More migrants and refugees reportedly have returned to their countries of origin, as well. Some observers attributed Belarusian authorities' newfound willingness to shelter and facilitate the return of migrants to their home countries to Lukashenko's desire for official engagement with European leaders. Lukashenko may have perceived, rightly or wrongly, that such engagement bolsters perceptions of his authority and legitimacy, after months of domestic challenges and international isolation. The timing of Belarus's about face-hours after international media broadcast images of Polish forces responding to migrants with riot gear-suggests another potential aim of Belarus's actions: to generate scenes of chaos and violence that Belarusian (and Russian) https://crsrepor