Belarus' plan to engineer an EU migrant crisis backfires as migrants decide Belarus is better than nothing

Migrants at Belarus-Poland border
(Image credit: Maxim Guchek/BELTA/AFP/Getty Images)

If Belarusian leader Alexander Lukashenko wanted to take revenge on the European Union by flooding it with asylum-seeking migrants he routed to the Polish border, as appears to be the case, his plan backfired. "Lukashenko's regime is now struggling over what do with thousands of stranded people he lured from the Middle East and beyond," The Washington Post reports.

Belarus on Wednesday began bussing migrants amassed in the cold at the Polish border to warehouses promising food, warmth, and shelter. But "having helped funnel desperate migrants to Europe's doorstep," The New York Times reports, "Lukashenko suddenly has to deal with people like Bale Nisu, a 21-year-old Kurd from Iraq who has taken a liking to Belarus, and would like to settle here."

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Peter Weber, The Week US

Peter has worked as a news and culture writer and editor at The Week since the site's launch in 2008. He covers politics, world affairs, religion and cultural currents. His journalism career began as a copy editor at a financial newswire and has included editorial positions at The New York Times Magazine, Facts on File, and Oregon State University.