In an article filled with photographic, video and documentary evidence, Tadeusz Giczan writes that Belarus has orchestrated the arrival of thousands of people from countries such as Iraq.
They are then helped to illegally enter the European Union, originally through Lithuania, and now mainly via Poland and Latvia.
'Operation Floodgate'
This is all part of the state-backed "Operation Floodgate," a plan conceived a decade ago by the Belarusian security service, with the aid of Russia's FSB, according to the Minsk-born, Poland-educated journalist.
He published the article on his own website, waidelotte.org, on Tuesday.
Giczan observed that in late May, when Belarus hijacked a Ryanair flight to detain opposition activist Roman Protasevich, Lukashenko issued a warning to the EU.
"We've been stopping drugs and migrants; now you will be catching them yourselves," the Belarusian strongman said at the time, according to Giczan.
By then the state-owned Belarusian company Centrkurort had begun to work with Iraqi travel agencies, arranging ever more flights, with ever more people, from the Middle East, Giczan said.
Upon paying USD 600-1,000 per person for a one-week stay in Belarus, Iraqi nationals were granted tourist visas. But some of them immediately headed for the EU border, according to the journalist, who works for the Center for European Policy Analysis (CEPA).
Moreover, Giczan asserted in his article that there was clear evidence, including from the EU's border management agency Frontex, that Belarus officials were turning a blind eye as immigrants attempted to cross into the EU.
In many cases Minsk's border guards escorted them to the border themselves. They even removed barbed wire fences to smooth out the way, Giczan reported.
Migrants ferried to border in Belarusian gov't buses
Photographs also show that migrants were transported to the border by buses from the Belarusian ministry of defence, according to the waidelotte.org website.
Throughout June and July, all went to Lukashenko's plan, as Iraqis were joined by growing numbers of Africans, chiefly from the Congo and Cameroon.
Minsk's state-owned media warned Warsaw and Vilnius they would soon have to deal with a large-scale contraband of heroin, too, according to Giczan.
But then, in early August, Lithuania said it would start to turn migrants away, while Brussels pressed Iraq into suspending all flight connections with Belarus.
And so thousands of immigrants who had been assisted with a view to entering Lithuania became stranded. They are now being directed to Poland and Latvia as a plan B, the article posted at waidelotte.org said.
What's more, Lukashenko has announced he will be bringing in ever more migrants and refugees, including from Afghanistan, Giczan claimed.
Meanwhile, migrants from Iraq have begun flying in through Istanbul, along with large groups of people from across the Middle East and Africa, according to Giczan.
In conclusion of his report, Giczan said Operation Floodgate would likely continue for as long as the Polish and Latvian borders remained permeable.
"Judging from what is currently happening in Poland, it cannot be ruled out that the next attack ... will be directed specifically at Poland," the journalist warned.
(pm/gs)
Source: waidelotte.org