Bild: Russia issues bulks of visas to migrants going to EU via Belarus

May 3, BPN. According to an internal report of the German police, Russian authorities are issuing visas en masse to citizens of Middle Eastern countries for their subsequent entry into the European Union through the territory of Belarus.

“The misuse of Russian visas to travel via the Russian Federation to Belarus and on to the EU remains unchanged,” the report reads, as quoted by Bild today.

The route through Russia and Belarus is reportedly advertised in social networks, and special aircraft carry migrants from Turkey to Russia.

The spike in the number of migrants coming from Turkey may be caused by the upcoming presidential election in that country. Turkish leader Recep Tayyip Erdogan is supposedly afraid of losing the election, so he is letting thousands of migrants leave. Many of them arrive in the EU via Belarus with Russian visas, and enter Germany via Poland and Czechia, according to the article.

The German police report says there were 22,500 illegal border crossings at the bloc’s external borders in March, a 60 percent rise from one year earlier. From January to March, 19,627 people were able to enter Germany illegally, 6,672 in March alone. That month, 808 illegal immigrants, mostly Afghans, Syrians and Yemenis, got to Germany through Russia and Belarus.

Previously, BPN reported that the number of apprehended illegal immigrants entering Germany via Belarus and Poland decreased by 41 percent y/y in the first quarter of 2023. This is evident from the German government’s answer to the Alternative for Germany’s inquiry about the dynamics of this process.

The German police expects a rise in illegal migration into the country in the coming weeks.