The Migration Crisis on the Polish-Belarusian Border

The migration crisis on the Polish-Belarusian border was deliberately caused by the authorities of Russia and Belarus. It means that migrants from Iraq, Afghanistan, Syria and other countries of the Middle East, as well as from Africa, were deliberately brought to the Polish-Belarusian border (also Lithuanian-Belarusian and Latvian-Belarusian borders) by Belarusian dictator Alexandr Lukashenka in consultations with the Russian authorities. This was a reaction to the fact that the USA and the EU did not recognize Alexandr Lukashenko as a president because the 2020 elections in Belarus were rigged and the real winner turned out to be Swiatłana Cichanouska. It was also a reaction to the economic sanctions imposed by the EU on Belarus after illegal landing of a Ryanair plane carrying an opposition activist Raman Pratasiewicz, who was subsequently arrested. These are elements of asymmetrical, hostile actions, though below the threshold of war, which are aimed at causing domestic problems in Poland (also in Lithuania and Latvia) and absorbing the attention of these countries. This was especially important in the context of the Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2022. In our presentation we intend to show the sources and the course of the migration crisis on the Polish-Belarusian border. The reaction of the conservative, populist Law and Justice government to this crisis will be analyzed as well. We will also try to answer the question to what extent the new Polish government has changed its approach to this crisis and the migrants themselves.