Did the EU ‘Shoot Itself in the Foot’ With This Migrant Crisis?

The Poland-Belarus border crisis is escalating by the day—and while Belarusian dictator Alexander Lukashenko’s tactic of weaponizing migrants has sparked outrage worldwide, some are also pointing fingers at the EU for its treatment of those migrants and its flawed border policy.

“What Belarus is doing in terms of weaponizing migrants in this way is a terrible terrible thing, but I don’t know if the right response from Poland in terms of sending back migrants who have already crossed,” said The Daily Beast’s Noor Ibrahim. “That’s because we know what this dictatorship is. We know who Lukashenko is. And someone, at some point, has to step up. Because who are the people who are going to be falling through the cracks here? It’s these migrants.”

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The AFP’s Dave Clark argued that the ongoing crisis comes after years of the EU “shooting itself in the foot” when it comes to border policy.

“It’s good that the European Union is standing up now. We’ve failed for a decade now to develop some kind of common border policy that could absorb what is only about 2000 [migrants] or so.”

TVP’s Brussels-based correspondent, Dominica Cosic, however, said it wasn’t that simple.

“It’s not so black and white,” said Cosic. “It’s not just a question of borders, but confidences and powers. Belarus and Russia will use all possible chances to destabilize this situation.”

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