December 28. Due to the coordinated actions of Latvia, Lithuania, and Poland, the situation with illegal migration from Belarus is “relatively stabilizing” by the end of the year, yet this development cannot be considered irreversible, according to the 2021 annual report of the Latvian Foreign Minister Edgars Rinkēvičs.
Rinkēvičs noted that several thousand migrants still remain in Belarus and their attempts to cross the border illegally continue, while the Lukašenka regime does not show readiness to stop “destabilizing actions.” Moreover, Russia backed Minsk amid the “hybrid attack”, blaming the West for the migration crisis and threatening an “adequate” response.
Riga sees the creation of an “artificial migration flow with an accompanying disinformation campaign” as “an asymmetrical response of the Lukašenka regime to the principled position of the European Union on the regime’s gross violations of human rights and fundamental freedoms”.
“Latvia, together with its partners, will continue to consistently defend the country’s external border, which is also the border of the European Union, and to oppose any other manifestations of hybrid attack until it is completely eliminated,” the report says.
It is noted that the Presidents of the European Council and the European Commission, the Secretary General and the North Atlantic Council of NATO expressed solidarity with the Baltic states and Poland. New sanctions were imposed against those responsible for creating a crisis at the border. The EU has allocated 200 million euro to strengthen the border and 3.5 million euro to bring the migrants home.
In Latvia’s view, the EU migration and asylum policy should be based on a differentiated approach in the future, taking into account the events that have occurred.
The report mentions the Belarusian-Russian military exercises “Zapad 2021” that “demonstrated Russia’s unwillingness to fulfil its commitments.” According to the head of the Latvian MFA, Russia and Belarus use elements of a hybrid war against Latvia and its allies, in particular, propaganda and disinformation campaigns to undermine their unity and discredit the EU and NATO.
Recalling the decision of Belarusian authorities to suspend their participation in the EU Eastern Partnership initiative, the minister spoke about the need for greater involvement of Belarusian civil society in the initiative, thus sending “a strong signal of the EU’s readiness to cooperate with a democratic Belarus.
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