Opinion: Europe is unlikely to investigate cases of murdered refugees
The world should know about the ill-treatment, murder and torture of refugees by Polish, Lithuanian and Latvian border guards, political expert Aleksandr Shpakovsky believes
In his talk with Alfa Radio, the expert noted that a terrible attitude of the neighbouring states towards refugees continues. “Polish and Lithuanian border guards continue to kill refugees. There have been found so many corpses already at the border – thrown into the Belarusian territory. Actually, the topic has merely left the front pages of newspapers,” he said.
Mr. Shpakovsky explained why Belarus has stopped detaining migrants who are trying to get to Western countries through its territory, “True, refugees continue to migrate along the Belarusian route. Actually, this was not happening while the European Union had agreements with Belarus in the field of border security, from which it [the EU] withdrew on its own initiative. Of course, the route has always existed. Didn’t we receive flights from Middle Eastern countries in the past? We did, and flights were even more frequent. It is now that we face semi-isolation in the field of civil air transportation. At the same time, naturally, such people mostly chose a non-Belarusian route previously for a simple reason: we had agreements, and we adhered to them. We had to detain migrants and deport them. At present, the European Union is actually waging an economic and political war against our country. Why should we bear the costs now, while they are pursuing this aggressive policy and withdrawing from border security agreements? We have accordingly stopped detaining these migrants.”
As noted by the expert, the West is to blame for the current situation and the flows of refugees who want to get to Europe. “Naturally, the European Union is largely to blame because of its neo-colonial policy that has resulted in the development of this situation in the Middle East. It has destroyed all secular states – trying to damage Libya, Syria, Iraq. A civil war is everywhere, and it is being fomented with the help of the West. It appears that Americans have democratised the territories of the Syrian Arab Republic, which are rich in oil deposits. There is a certain correlation here,” he explained.
Mr. Shpakovsky added that European countries are constantly ‘shouting’ about the respect for human rights, but they are simultaneously turning a blind eye to refugees from the Middle East. “They can build fences, and do anything – but these people will still get into the European Union. If they kill and displace someone, then there are still those lucky ones who get into the territory of European countries. I should note that we are not simply talking about human rights: we respect them. Meanwhile, the European Union has singled this out for itself as the main slogan. However, in reality, falsifications, dirty corruption, human rights violations – including towards migrants – are observed there. Nobody in the EU admits that several dozen refugees have already been killed, that the actions of border guards have led to this. There is not the slightest hint that someone is going to investigate the situation. There was a Polish soldier (he later committed a suicide), who spoke of mass executions and was ready to show where they had taken place. Has anyone in the UN, OSCE and other structures – that are ‘so much concerned’ about the observance of human rights – paid attention to that? There is a conspiracy of silence here, and they will fail to notice another murder again,” the expert stressed.
Mr. Shpakovsky believes that all information about the crimes of Polish, Lithuanian and Latvian border guards should be made public. “It is necessary to publicly describe all the murders and tortures committed by Polish, Lithuanian and Latvian border services, or other structures. All cases must be documented. The world should know about them,” he stated.
