By Gabriela Baczynska

BRUSSELS (Reuters) – The European Union will tighten visa rules for Belarusian state officials, Europe’s migration commissioner said on Wednesday, in retaliation for what she called Minsk’s aggressive effort to destabilise the bloc by pushing in irregular migrants.

EU claims President Alexander Lukashenko orchestrated a dramatic rise in the number of migrants arriving at Belarus’ borders with its members Poland, Lithuania, and Latvia. This increase was after 27 nations united imposed sanctions on Minsk due to human rights abuses, and widely discredited elections.

“We have a hostile regime, Lukashenko. That is actually pushing migrants…to the European frontier to destabilise European Union,” Ylva Johannsson, the bloc’s Home Affairs Commissioner, said to journalists. This is an act for aggression.

Johansson spoke out as part of an update regarding stalled negotiations to create a new EU migration program to replace that which failed in the face of a rise in Mediterranean immigrants between 2015-16.

She stressed that Europol data shows that 90% of irregular migrants to the EU have been helped by people smugglers. This is why she suggested that EU countries intensify their efforts against these traffickers.

Belarus was recommended by her to tighten visa procedures, not just for ordinary Belarusians.

She said, “What we see now is a desperate Lukashenko.” This regime has prevented its people from free and fair elections. This regime is jailing political opposition.

This is the regime that hijacked passenger flights… now it is using innocent people as an act of aggression. We should not cooperate with this regime.

Lukashenko has blamed the West https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/belarus-leader-warns-nato-troops-ukraine-migrant-catastrophe-2021-09-27 for what he said was a looming humanitarian catastrophe this winter at the Belarusian-Polish border.

A new visa facilitation arrangement was negotiated by the EU and Belarus in July 2013 to reduce travel costs and ease paperwork for Belarusians wanting to visit briefly.

Minsk has since pulled out of the EU readmission deal, which allows for cooperation in expulsions of people not allowed to leave the bloc.

This was after the EU sanctioned Belarus following disputed elections last August, a crackdown against protests and Lukashenko’s extension of his 26-year-long reign.

Following the Belarusian government’s forced landing of a Ryanair flight on Belarusian soil in May last year, the bloc increased sanctions and imposed broader economic restrictions on Minsk.

The border between Belarus and Lithuania was then opened to migrants from Iraq, Kurdistan and Cameroon. This country had never seen such immigrants in the past. It also opened the borders with Latvia and Poland.

Five deaths are reported from the Polish-Belarusian border. Johansson requested that Warsaw conduct an investigation.

Johansson demanded that Warsaw investigate. The Polish nationalist and anti-immigration Law and Justice party (PiS), has created an emergency zone at the border with Belarus. This means journalists and rights activists cannot witness any developments.

Johansson stated that it was unacceptable for people to die at our borders. She also said she would be traveling to Warsaw to meet Poland’s interior minister.