Warsaw demonstrates sophisticated diplomatic skill in its handling of the mounting tensions on its border with Belarus over an increasing influx of undocumented migrants, allowing it to gain some points in its difficult relations with Brussels, Nina Bachkatov, political science professor at the University of Liege in Belgium, told Sputnik
BRUSSELS (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 09th November, 2021) Warsaw demonstrates sophisticated diplomatic skill in its handling of the mounting tensions on its border with Belarus over an increasing influx of undocumented migrants, allowing it to gain some points in its difficult relations with Brussels, Nina Bachkatov, political science professor at the University of Liege in Belgium, told Sputnik.
As of Tuesday, close to 2,000 refugees are stranded at the Belarusian border with Poland. As part of measures to prevent refugees from crossing into Poland, the authorities have deployed security forces to the border. Late on Monday, Prague expressed solidarity with Warsaw and joined its appeal to Brussels to introduce additional EU sanctions on Belarusian officials over the border crisis.
"Poland displays remarkable diplomatic skills. The country is experiencing serious difficulties with the European Union and the Brussels (EU) Commission on issues such as abortion, the LGBT rights or the rule of Law, but here, the sovereigntist Polish government kills two birds with one stone ... Poland scores a point," Bachkatov said.
On the one hand, by attaching enormous importance to this "invasion" of migrants from Belarus and speaking of a flooding of the border, the Polish government is improving its domestic image, on the other hand, Warsaw puts Brussels in an awkward position, since the EU wants the member states to let in all migrants, and then sort out those who will be granted asylum and those who should be expelled but are not, the expert believes.
The professor also put the current situation on the border between Poland and Belarus in parallel with the 2015 migrant crisis, saying that the numbers are very far from the tens of thousands arriving every day at the height of the 2015 crisis via the Balkans.
Commenting on the fence hastily installed by Poland, Bachkatov said it was working well and was actually stopping migrants. She believes that the support for such a measure as closing the border is much appreciated in Europe, not only in Poland or Lithuania.
"I believe that many European citizens who see these images on television must say to themselves, at least in petto, that Europe would do well to take inspiration from the Poles to stop uncontrolled immigration. The population in Poland, but also elsewhere in Europe, is very much aware of insecurity and does not want to see a flood of refugees in its railway stations and elsewhere," Bachkatov added.
Further elaborating on measures already taken by EU against Belarus, the professor said that they were working and more actions were hardly expected.
"The EU has ostracized Belarus for its hijacking of an airliner, for its policies vis-a-vis the democratic opposition and now for its attempt to destabilize Central Europe by� sending migrants from the middle East to the border with Poland and the two� Baltic states concerned. Sanctions have been taken and the border is closed. It works, but it is not the way Brussels wanted it to be. More and larger actions against Minsk are not really needed or expected," Bachkatov said.
The expert added that the current crisis on the EU's external border is not anymore about figures and the number of migrants but "a political crisis in itself within Europe," with Poland gaining a point.
