When, at the end of last year, Belarussian president Alexander Lukashenko lured hundreds of people into Belarus, with the unspoken promise of free passage to the European Union through Poland, it fuelled yet another refugee crisis on Europe’s border (See Currents, NI 535). This latest humanitarian crisis comes amid continuing loss of life in the Mediterranean, as well as in the English Channel.
The European Union’s borders continue to be a site for the punishment and weaponization of people trying to find a better life. Lukashenko’s actions appear to be a retaliation for EU sanctions on Belarus, imposed after the EU’s election monitor alleged widespread human rights abuses in the aftermath of the 2020 presidential poll. But this isn’t the first time that a national leader has used refugees as a political bargaining chip, as leverage against Europe.
