According to Belarusian media and officials in a change of tack that could help ease a crisis that has spiralled in recent weeks, Belarus has moved migrants and refugees away from the main camps at the Polish border.
European countries have accused Belarus of deliberately creating the crisis by flying in people from the Middle East and pushing them to attempt to cross its borders into Poland and Lithuania. Minsk has rejected the allegations.
Belarusian state-run media reported on Thursday that many asylum seekers had moved into a heated warehouse not far from the border, emptying out a makeshift camp.
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A spokesperson for the Polish border guard said the camps on the frontier in western Belarus were completely empty on Thursday, which a Belarusian press officer confirmed, the Reuters news agency reported.
“These camps are now empty, the migrants have been taken most likely to the transport-logistics centre, which is not far from the Bruzgi border crossing,” the Polish spokesperson said.
“There were no other such camps … but there were groups appearing in other places trying to cross the border. We’ll see what happens in the next hours.”
The move comes after a flurry of diplomatic activity. Earlier this week, Germany’s Chancellor Angela Merkel spoke by telephone twice to Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko, normally shunned by European leaders.
And Russian President Vladimir Putin on Thursday called on him to start a dialogue with his opponents – who swiftly rejected the idea unless Lukashenko freed political prisoners.
French President Emmanuel Macron also spoke to Putin about the crisis. (Aj)
