There are several reasons why the number of asylum applications in Germany is currently on the rise again: The number of people daring a dangerous escape across the Mediterranean is greater than last year, which in most cases starts in Tunisia and Libya. More refugees are coming via the Balkan route, which now passes through Poland. Then there is the road from Minsk towards the European Union.

Rolf Mutzenich, leader of the SPD parliamentary group, told the Augsburg Allgemeine newspaper that the sharp increase in the number of asylum seekers entering Germany via the borders of Poland and the Czech Republic indicates that many refugees are being deliberately smuggled into the EU from Russia via Belarus via bypass routes. . „.

“We are witnessing a series of hybrid warfare on the part of Russia, where refugees are specifically transferred and smuggled directly from Syria and other crisis areas with the aim of destabilizing Europe,” Motzenich continued.

The European Union should threaten sanctions if visas are obtained fraudulently using false information.

Andreas RoskopfHead of the Federal Police District GdP

The Federal Police had previously announced at the end of September that the increasing trend in the number of unauthorized entries into Germany continued in August. 14,701 border crossings were registered by the Federal Police in August, which is 5,855 more entries than in the same month last year and about 4,000 more than in July this year.

Is there also a hybrid war behind the numbers being fought by Kremlin President Vladimir Putin and his ally, Belarusian dictator Alexander Lukashenko? According to information received from the police union (GdP), this cannot be assessed.

However, the Federal Police are aware that, as in 2021, airlines are again involved in transporting people with visas to study or work in Belarus, the head of the GdP Federal Police District, Andreas Roskopf, told the Tagesspiegel newspaper. Roskopf said that the people concerned did not remain at the site after that, but were sent towards Germany.

According to him, the airlines in question will primarily bring people from Turkey, Pakistan and Iraq to Belarus. The question arises as to whether previously issued visas were issued using false information. “Of course we have to start there,” Roskopf demanded. He called for sanctions to be imposed on the European Union if visas were obtained fraudulently using false information.

This approach achieved tangible results two years ago. At that time, in addition to the Belarusian state airline Belavia, other airlines were also involved in the smuggling of people seeking protection into Belarus. The European Union threatened, among other things, to impose sanctions on the Turkish airline Turkish Airlines. The government in Ankara subsequently announced that Turkey would no longer allow people from Syria, Iraq and Yemen to travel from its territory to Belarus.

At the time, acting Foreign Minister Heiko Maas (SPD) also spoke in favor of imposing sanctions on individual airlines. Regarding his successor, Annalena Baerbock (Green Party), Roskopf said: “Our foreign minister must act.”

It was not clear at the time to what extent Belarusian Governor Lukashenko acted on his own account in smuggling operations in 2021 or whether he was under Putin’s influence. However, Anton Hofreiter, head of the European Committee in the Bundestag, says: “It is known, unfortunately, that autocrats like Putin try to take advantage of fugitives.”

The Green politician told the Tagesspiegel newspaper that it was „completely reprehensible” to mistreat people fleeing their homes due to war and hunger for their own interests. “It is in Putin’s interest to destabilize the European Union.”

If more people now come to Germany via the Minsk route, Hofreiter believes the EU should not respond “by further deteriorating Europe’s already problematic asylum system.”

The controversial crisis regulation, which aims to allow asylum seekers to stay longer under prison-like conditions at the EU’s external borders under certain conditions, would hit back at Russia’s policy with „inhumane measures”. “This is wrong,” Hofreiter said.