Belarus–European Union border crisis

Thousands of migrants, mostly from the Middle East, have flocked to Europe after Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko announced in May that he was easing measures against those wishing to emigrate to the West.

Hundreds of migrants who were camped in the cold on the Poland-Belarus border have been moved to a nearby warehouse in Belarusian territory, reports said on Nov. 17, with some still harboring hopes of entering the European Union.

The family are lucky this time - the approaching footsteps are those of volunteer doctors who are helping the migrants stuck in the border area. They give medicines to the mother and walk off.

The European Union and the United States vowed on Nov. 15 to press ahead with fresh sanctions against the regime of Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko, as migrants massed at the Polish border despite Minsk claiming it was trying to repatriate them.

Blaming Turkey or its national airline for the humanitarian crisis at the Polish border with Belarus is "misguided", President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan's top foreign policy adviser told AFP on Nov. 13.

NATO on Nov. 12 "strongly" condemned Belarus for "artificially creating" migrant crisis "for political purposes".

Ankara on Nov. 12 banned citizens of Syria, Iraq and Yemen from flying from Turkish airports to Belarus because of the refugee crisis at the former Soviet country's border with Poland.

Russia sent two nuclear-capable strategic bombers on a training mission over Belarus for a second straight day on Nov. 11 in a strong show of Moscow's support for its ally amid a dispute over migration at the Polish border.

Turkey on Nov. 11 reiterated its support for Poland, Latvia, and Lithuania amid a refugee flux on their borders with Belarus.

Migrants approaching a fence at the Belarus-Polish border in the Grodno region of Belarus, November 10, 2021. Photo: EPA-EFE/LEONID SCHEGLOV/BELTA

Turkey's Anadolu Agency reported that Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu told his Polish counterpart Zbigniew Rau on Wednesday that Turkey was being made part of a problem despite not being party to it.