Another humanitarian catastrophe is unfolding on the European Union’s doorstep. Poland has responded by deploying 20,000 border police, firing water cannon and teargas at asylum seekers, reinforcing its border fencing and blocking access for journalists and aid organisations. This need to react is understandable: Belarus president Alexander Lukashenko’s use of refugees and migrants as pawns for political gain, luring them from the Middle East to deliberately create a border crisis, is heinous.

Still, Poland’s militarised response is disproportionate, and is – according to the UN – a breach of humanitarian law and the right to asylum. But while Lukashenko’s actions are appalling, what is really to blame for this crisis is a string of shortsighted and transactional agreements with the European Union’s neighbouring countries in recent years.

Poland-Belarus border crisis: what is going on and who is to blame?

The root of this latest military escalation – which involves not only Poland, but a nominal number of troops from Britain, as well as EU sanctions and strong condemnation from Nato and members of the UN security council – is a fear of migration that has loomed over EU politics since 2015. …

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2021/nov/16/poland-belarus-border-crisis-eu-refugees

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