February 2, Pozirk. Minsk police have reported the arrest of three suspected human traffickers, the latest such case to undercut the government’s stated refusal to cooperate with the European Union on irregular migration.
Police in Minsk arrested three people on suspicion of trafficking Asian migrants from Russia via Belarus to the European Union, Anatol Łapacin, a spokesman for the Minsk regional police’s organized crime unit, said. Two of the suspects had previously been tried for drug-related crimes, he added.
Investigators have opened a criminal case into the organization of illegal migration.
Łapacin said authorities were considering expelling some of the migrants involved but did not specify how many.
About two weeks ago, Minsk police released a video showing the arrest of two foreigners and a Belarusian woman suspected of organizing migrant trafficking into the country.
Uladzimir Harahlad, chief of the organized crime unit, said the suspects had issued fake documents to legalize at least 100 Asian migrants, charging fees of $200 to $250 for their services.
Harhlad said migrants who had been legalized illegally would be expelled from Belarus.
Such periodic reports of arrests and expulsions stand in contrast to Minsk’s official rhetoric of outright refusal to cooperate with the EU on efforts to curb irregular migration.
“Firstly, under comprehensive sanctions pressure, we do not have spare resources or moral obligations to solve the problems of those who have imposed these sanctions,” Alaksandar Łukašenka said at the III Minsk International Conference on Eurasian Security on October 28. “They are strangling us with sanctions while asking us to protect them… As soon as they imposed sanctions and severed cooperation on migration issues, I told them openly that we would not be catching anyone or protecting them.”
He added that Poland, Lithuania and Latvia had unilaterally curtailed all infrastructure and cross-border cooperation projects.
Łukašenka also repeated his claim that the West had “invited” migrants.
“The logic is simple,” he said. “If you have destroyed the bridges, do not ask us to build a crossing. We will not protect you with a noose around our neck. Sanctions are a noose around the neck of the Belarusian people, and you expect us to protect you? This will not happen.”
Only a small portion of the international sanctions imposed on Minsk after 2020 are directly linked to the migration crisis. The harshest measures were introduced over the authorities’ role in Russia’s war against Ukraine.
In June 2021, the Belarusian government suspended a readmission agreement with the EU in response to sanctions imposed after the forced landing of a Ryanair flight in Minsk.
Latvia, Lithuania and Poland describe the migration crisis as a “hybrid attack” orchestrated by Minsk and Moscow.
