The weaponisation of migrants - a new form of warfare

Belarus’ use of migrants from the Middle East and Africa to blackmail the EU will not be the last immigration crisis that Europe has to confront.

Migrants gather near a sports complex in Minsk, Belarus on Nov 11, 2021. PHOTO: NYTIMES
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The forests of central Europe are not the place to be in mid-November: the skies are grey, the days are short, the soil is damp, and temperatures rarely rise above freezing.

Yet this is precisely where thousands of migrants from the Middle East and Africa are now facing tens of thousands of soldiers from European nations. The migrants are determined to smash past border controls and barbed wire obstacles to get into the European Union. And the soldiers are under orders to prevent them from doing so.

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