Turkey bans citizens from Syria, Yemen and Iraq from flying to Belarus
From CNN’s Sharon Braithwaite and Aliza Kassim
Turkey has suspended ticket sales to Iraqi, Syrian and Yemeni citizens wanting to travel to Belarus, which has become a focal point for migrants and refugees seeking to reach Europe in recent months.
The move, which was announced by the Turkish Civil Aviation Authority on Friday, comes after pressure from the European Union on international carriers, such as Turkish Airlines, to stop bringing people from the Middle East to Minsk, the Belarusian capital.
“Due to the problem of illegal border crossings between the European Union and Belarus, it has been decided that the citizens of Iraq, Syria and Yemen who want to travel to Belarus from Turkish airports will not be allowed to buy tickets and boarding until further notice,” the Turkish Civil Aviation Authority tweeted on Friday.
The European Commission said on Friday that talks with Turkey, Iraq, Lebanon and the United Arab Emirates to try to halt migrants who they say are being encouraged by Belarus to travel to the bloc were already showing fruit. Belarus has denied any wrongdoing.
The bloc continues to work “very closely with the airline sector to prevent the trafficking and smuggling of people to the border region in Belarus,” an EU Commission spokesperson told reporters Friday in a press briefing in Brussels. “Iraqi Airlines has confirmed that it will not resume flights to Minsk and Turkish Airlines will also suspend sales of one way tickets to Minsk from Turkey.”
EU Commission Vice President Margaritis Schinas welcomed the Turkish Civil Aviation Authority’s decision at a press briefing in Beirut, Lebanon, on Friday.
“I was in Dubai yesterday where I was impressed by the commitment of the authorities of the UAE, to work with us to put an end to these practices,” Schinas said. “I would like to salute publicly the decision by the Turkish Civil Aviation Authority that has announced a couple of hours ago, their decision to also limit this type of operations. And I got assurances from my interlocutors here in Lebanon [they are] also ready to work with us.”
Russia and Belarus hold military drills as migrant crisis on EU border grows
From CNN’s Kara Fox, Anna Chernova, Katharina Krebs and Matthew Chance
Russia and Belarus flexed their military might for a third time this week near the Poland-Belarus border, where thousands of people are stranded in deplorable conditions, trapped at the center of an intensifying humanitarian and geopolitical crisis.
On Friday, Russia and Belarus held joint paratrooper drills near Poland, exercises the Belarusian defense ministry said were “in connection with the buildup of military activity near the state border of the Republic of Belarus.”
Some 15,000 Polish soldiers have been deployed to Poland’s border with Belarus in recent days in reaction to a tense standoff that the European Union, the United States and NATO say is of Belarusian leader Alexander Lukashenko’s making.
Western leaders, including prime ministers of neighboring Poland, Latvia and Lithuania, are accusing the Lukashenko regime of manufacturing a migrant crisis on the EU’s eastern frontier as retribution for sanctions over human rights abuses.
Lukashenko’s government has repeatedly denied such claims, instead blaming the West for the crossings and treatment of migrants.
Trapped in the crossfire are upwards of 2,000 people stuck between Poland and Belarus who are now facing conditions the United Nations has called “catastrophic,” with desperate scenes of hunger and hypothermia playing out in freezing forests and at makeshift camps at the border.
Russia, Belarus’ largest (and most important) political and economic partner, continues to defend Minsk’s handling of the border crisis while also denying any involvement in it.
Read more about the crisis here:
UK will deploy army to “provide engineering support” at Poland-Belarus border
From CNN’s Allegra Goodwin in London
The United Kingdom will send a team of Armed Forces members to “provide engineering support” to Poland on the Belarus border, a UK Ministry of Defense spokesperson told CNN on Friday.
“The UK and Poland have a long history of friendship and are NATO allies. A small team of UK Armed Forces personnel have deployed following agreement with the Polish Government to explore how we can provide engineering support to address the ongoing situation at the Belarus border,” the spokesperson said.
Poland’s Defense Minister Mariusz Błaszczak appeared to confirm the news on social media, tweeting: “Reconnaissance began before the support of the British engineering troops. Our soldiers will strengthen in strengthening the fence on the Polish-Belarusian border. After the reconnaissance is completed, we will inform you about the details.”
Polish authorities accuse Belarus of targeting Polish servicemen
From CNN’s Katharina Krebs in Moscow
Polish authorities have accused Belarusian authorities of using green lasers in attempt to blind Polish officers and soldiers, a claim that Belarus has denied.
Poland’s Border Guard on Friday tweeted a video purportedly showing the green laser beams coming from the Belarusian side.
“Tonight, we noted the use of a green laser by the Belarusian services. We assume that these were attempts to blind our officers and soldiers patrolling the border,” said Poland State Border Guard.
Meanwhile, the Belarusian State Border Committee, in a statement published on Friday, said without presenting further evidence the Polish Ministry of Defense was publishing video alongside provocative messages and that Polish officials had harassed and ignored migrants seeking asylum on Polish territory.
“Polish soldiers continue to exert psychological influence on refugees, use loudspeakers, searchlights and strobe lights, and also ignore requests for assistance to people who are on Polish territory directly at the Polish barriers,” the Belarus State Border Committee said.
Both sides have accused each other of spreading misinformation. Poland declared a state of emergency that has effectively barred journalists from working in the regions bordering Belarus, while Polish officials have released extensive video footage they claim shows Belarusian security forces using migrants as “propaganda material.”
Polish foreign ministry: “Poland has the right to defend its border”
From CNN’s Antonia Mortensen
Poland’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA) said Friday that the country had a right to defend itself from illegal border crossings, hitting back against criticisms from advocacy group Human Rights Watch for leaving migrants in limbo and facing dire conditions.
Kenneth Roth, executive director of the organization, said on Twitter: “Belarus and Polish authorities seem willing to let migrants die on their border. Belarus won’t let them leave the border area where the authorities brought them, and Poland won’t let them enter to apply for asylum.”
In response, Polish MFA spokesperson Łukasz Jasina tweeted: “Illegal border crossing is prohibited everywhere in the world. Poland has the right to defend its border and decide who it allows and who does not.”
Weather expected to turn colder along Poland-Belarus border
From CNN’s Monica Garrett
Chilly temperatures along the Poland-Belarus border are a few degrees above average but colder air will move over the area next week, worsening the already dire conditions for thousands of migrants trapped in the region.
Average high temperatures in the region this time of year are around 4°C (40°F) with average lows near freezing — 0°C (32°F).
A colder air mass will move in from the northeast approaching the border early next week, with the coldest temperatures of this event expected on Tuesday. Highs will just edge above freezing with overnight lows around -3°C (26°F).
Gusty winds will make it feel even colder. It will feel like below freezing for about 48 straight hours from Monday to Wednesday.
This cold spell will remain dry, with showers moving into the region late in the week along with slightly warmer temperatures.
CNN Exclusive: At the Belarus-Poland border, desperate people scramble for food and heat before it’s too late
From CNN’s Matthew Chance in Bruzgi, Belarusian border
CNN’s Matthew Chance has gained exclusive access inside a makeshift migrant camp at Bruzgi, at the Belarusian border with Poland.
Walking through a crowd that’s swelled to some 2,000 people in recent days, Chance detailed harrowing scenes of hunger and despair.
People are starving and desperate for firewood, he said, and are scrambling to get fires lit before the sun goes down to avoid hypothermia.
CNN also documented chaotic scenes at a food distribution area. As the Belarusian Red Cross tried to hand out food aid, Belarusian security forces were pushing crowds back. Around 200 children and 600 women are trapped at the border, according to authorities.
Chance explained that people fleeing war-torn countries such as Syria and Iraq had come to Belarus with the expressed purpose of moving deeper into Europe and of trying to find a better life. But inside the camp, there’s a bitter sense of disappointment that isn’t happening.
Meanwhile, more people keep arriving. Belarusian authorities told Chance that the number of migrant arrivals to the border could swell to 10,000 in the upcoming weeks — if the standoff continues.
WATCH CNN’s Matthew Chance report from the Belarusian border here:
Kamala Harris says Lukashenko regime is engaged in “very troubling activity”
From CNN’s Nikki Carvajal and Jeremy Diamond
Vice President Kamala Harris says the US is “very concerned” about the situation at Poland’s border with Belarus.
“We are very concerned and closely paying attention to it,” Harris said at a press conference in Paris Friday, “and the Lukashenko regime I believe is engaged in very troubling activity.”
She added she had discussed the issue during her meeting with French President Emmanuel Macron. “The eyes of the world and its leaders are watching,” Harris said.
Iraqi woman loses unborn baby near Belarus-Poland border
From CNN’s Allegra Goodwin in London
An Iraqi migrant has lost her unborn child in Belarus near the border with Poland, the Belarus Health Ministry said in a statement Thursday.
The head of the main department for organizing medical care at the Ministry of Health, Aleksey Shcherbinsky, told reporters Thursday that a pregnant Iraqi woman from a refugee camp was taken to a hospital in the Grodno region of Belarus, according to the statement, posted to the Ministry’s official Telegram channel.
“Unfortunately, despite all the actions taken, the specialists failed to save the baby: intrauterine fetal death was diagnosed. The woman herself is in a stable condition and receives all the necessary assistance,” Shcherbinsky said.
Over the past 24 hours, Shcherbinsky said Thursday, 18 people from the camp turned to hospitals and clinics for medical help.
The patients were aged between 10 and 70 years old, Shcherbinsky said, and added “about 20 ambulance teams have already been sent out.”
“Undoubtedly, violations of the sanitary and epidemiological conditions in which refugees find themselves carry additional risks of both infectious and non-infectious diseases,” said Shcherbinsky.
