Under the title "Iraqi Migrants Become Victims of Belarus's Battle with the European Union," the Al-Hurra website reported that while attempting to make their way to the European Union to seek asylum, migrants from Iraq and Africa are facing greedy smugglers and treacherous land and sea crossings. According to the New York Times, some migrants now find themselves trapped in a geopolitical struggle between the European Union and Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko.
The New York Times stated, "This battle has intensified" since his government forced a Ryanair passenger plane to land and arrested an opposition activist, prompting worldwide condemnation and leading the EU to impose sanctions on Minsk. The newspaper added, "It seems that the lines of battle have been drawn on the Belarusian-Lithuanian border in recent weeks, as the number of migrants crossing into Lithuania, an EU member, from Belarus has risen." Lithuanian officials accuse Lukashenko of encouraging migrants to cross the border, using them as "weapons."
In response, Lithuania began constructing a 550-kilometer barbed-wire fence along its border with Belarus last Friday. According to Reuters, nearly 1,700 migrants entered Lithuania illegally from Belarus this year, with more than a thousand migrants doing so in July alone, according to the Lithuanian Border Guard. Half of these migrants reported being Iraqi citizens.
Last week, Iraqi Foreign Minister Fouad Hussein stated that his country would investigate the smuggling of Iraqi migrants into Lithuania. In a joint press conference held with his Lithuanian counterpart Gabrielius Landsbergis in Baghdad, Hussein addressed the topic of "Iraqi refugees in Lithuania," emphasizing his "rejection of the existence of human traffickers in Iraqi society." The Iraqi minister confirmed, according to the official Iraqi News Agency, that "the government will investigate the smuggling of Iraqis into Lithuania via Belarus."
The Lithuanian Foreign Minister and the EU’s foreign policy chief accused Belarus of using illegal migration as a political weapon to pressure the EU due to sanctions imposed on Minsk. During a meeting of EU foreign ministers in Brussels last Monday, Minister Gabrielius Landsbergis stated that Belarus was transporting migrants from abroad by air and sending them across the border to EU countries. He added, "Refugees are being used as a political weapon... I will discuss with my colleagues to ensure that the EU has a common strategy."
Josep Borrell, the EU's foreign policy chief, made similar comments later, stating, "Using migrants as weapons and pushing people at the borders is unacceptable."
