The area between Poland and Belarus is often overlooked, but in recent times the border the two countries share has become more and more of a melting point, for what concerns their relationship it has had good and bad times during the last 26 years, periodically Warsaw played an important intermediary role in improving EU–Belarus relations, in spite of this, however, the bilateral relationship was marked with animosity and multiple and recurrent reproaches.
The lowest point of their relationship has been reached in the period of time between 2011 and 2013 when the annexation of Crimea took place and, at the same time, Russia carried out an aggressive policy in Ukraine which started a lot of conflicts between the EU and Belarus and intensified the links between the latter and Poland, during those two years Belarus attacked Poland’s authorities and its eastern policies relentlessly and by the end of 2014 it was clear that the process of Belarus’s democratization couldn’t be completed due to the consistent Russian political and economic support and the poor leverage that the EU had over the territory.
Formally, Belarus is Russia’s closes military and political ally, it is lacking any contractual relation with the EU, and it actively funds undemocratic domestic policies, on the other hand, Belarus shares history with Poland, from culture to historical heritage notwithstanding their geographical proximity, as a matter of fact, the relations between Poland and Belarus can be regarded as a sort of a test for the EU-Belarus ones as Poland is Belarus’s largest neighboring EU country.
Starting from the beginning, Poland-Belarus’s relations began on 27 December 1991 when Warsaw formally recognized Belarus’s independence, from then Poland moved towards integration into the EU and NATO whereas Belarus pursued a Russian friendly policy; the moment that the EU introduced visa sanctions against Belarus in 1998 was cathartic and initiated the conflicts between the parties, being a full member of the EU, Poland responded to the growing repressions against democratic activists and independent media that were taking place in the Russian ally’s area by financing them.
Another very important fact is that the Polish minority in Belarus is composed of around 295,000 people according to the 2009 country’s census, and on the other hand the Belarusian ethnicity was estimated at around 47,000 citizens living in Poland as for 2011’s data, what’s more interesting though, is the fact that both minorities are concentrated in the Poland-Belarus borderland which is home to a variety of conflicts to this day, especially around the visa question, in fact, as soon as Poland entered in the Schengen zone it had to revoke all national legislation regulating short-term entries for foreigners, as a result of changes in Polish national legislation and a growing economic disparity between Poland and Belarus, the first one has become a more popular destination for both temporary labour migrants and permanent immigrants from the second one and this trend is likely to continue in the future bearing in mind the introduction of new benefits to holders of the Polish Cards and a continuing economic stagnation in Russia, which has been the most popular destination country for Belarusian labour migrants so far.
More recently The Belarusian authorities, in response to rising diplomatic tensions with Poland, have initiated repressive legislation which has targeted civil society and protestors and, in doing so, they have also affected national minorities in Belarus, consequently, the Polish Ministry of Foreign Affairs viewed these restrictive measures as persecution of Belarus’ Polish minority and even Josep Borrell, High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, condemned Belarusian authorities’ actions, in response, Poland introduced temporary sanctions against Belarusian officials involved in actions against Polish minority representatives.
These happenings have ulteriorly deteriorated relations between the two countries and the government of Belarus has used the escalation of conflict between Belarus and Poland to justify another round of repressive legislative initiatives.
In the last few days a record number of people attempted to cross the border between Poland and Belarus and the crossing has become increasingly dangerous, so much so that Poland presenting itself as the nation’s protector from invasion, has refused the migrants entry and, in some cases, actively pushed them back into the woods, the polish response has been severe, and the government ignored completely the order by the European Court of Human Rights, which is separate from the European Union, to provide food, clothing and medical care and in doing so, declared a state of emergency, which prevented journalists and aid workers from coming within three kilometres of the border zone, “This decree contradicts Poland’s obligations under refugee law, as it limits the access of asylum seekers to Polish territory, which is essential for them to apply for international protection. It is also at odds with the principle of non-criminalization of asylum seekers, i.e. that persons seeking protection should not be punished for their illegal entry or presence in the country,” stressed Amnesty International accusing Poland of unlawful acts.
In addition, Poland is also, like neighboring Lithuania, erecting a fence along the border, in truth, Poland began building a barbed-wire fence last week to curb the flow of migrants from countries such as Iraq and Afghanistan.
In response to the latest happenings, Poland and the European Union have accused Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko of encouraging hundreds of migrants to cross into Polish territory to put pressure on the bloc over sanctions the country has promoted, moreover, Poland’s parliament voted Monday to uphold the state of emergency along the border with Belarus that was declared last week amid migration pressure, and keeping in mind that Belarus is not an EU member but borders three countries which are, Poland, Lithuania, and Latvia, accused Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko as well of the same thing calling it an act of “hybrid war” against their countries in revenge for EU sanctions.
Will the international arena intervene? If so how extensive will its intervention be?
References:
They are stuck in freezing woods and Fortess Europe won’t let them in, available at:
Record number of people attempts to cross the border available at:
Polish lawmakers uphold state of emergency at the Belarus border, available at:
Poland declares state of emergency on Belarus border, available at:
Poland carried out Migrants push-back at Belarus border, available at:
Poland imposes state of emergency on Belarus border, available at:
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-58474475
Poland expects renewed effort by migrants to force through Belarus border, available at:
Poland ups security on Belarus border, available at:
Poland-Belarus relations, available at:
http://east-center.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/06/Poland_Belarus_relationship_Yeliseyeu.pdf
https://theloop.ecpr.eu/belarus-poland-relations-minorities-caught-in-between/
By The European Institute for International Law and International Relations.
