June 12, Pozirk. In what appears to be an attempt to counter Western accusations of complicity in illegal migration, the Belarusian interior ministry has reported the biggest catch of migrants in the last few years.
Officers of the interior ministry’s citizenship and migration department, backed by riot police (OMON) have apprehended 54 foreigners in Kałodziščy just outside Minsk, the ministry’s press office reported.
The report comes days after a Polish soldier died of a stab wound after being attacked by an identified man traveling with a group of foreigners trying to cross from Belarus into Poland.
The interior ministry said that the apprehended nationals of Iran, Pakistan, Syria and other countries lived in private homes and had arrived in Belarus from Russia by land transport.
“They planned to continue their journey to EU countries but did not have Belarusian visas,” it said, noting that the detainees were found guilty of minor offenses and ordered to leave the country.
Two weeks earlier, the Belarusian Prosecutor General’s Office reported that it had sent to court a case against two suspected illegal migration ring leaders without specifying their nationality.
Minsk reports detentions of illegal migrants every once in a while.
On April 9, Juryj Brazinski, head of the Minsk regional migration department, announced that police apprehended two groups of illegal migrants from Afghanistan, Yemen and Syria in Kałodziščy and Vialikaje Ścikleva.
“Twenty-nine foreigners lived at a private house. They had entered our country by land transport from Russia, planning to go to European Union countries. They did not have Belarusian visas,” Brazinski said.
He said authorities issued a legal order requiring them to leave the country.
The organizers of the illegal migration channel are being identified, he added.
