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Exiled Belarusian opposition leader Svetlana Tikhanovskaya has urged the Polish government not to shut down border crossing points between the two countries.<\/p>\n
“Keeping Belarusians connected to Europe is crucial,” she said in a post on X, adding that people could not be left “behind a new iron curtain”.<\/p>\n
Earlier on Sunday, Poland’s foreign minister said Warsaw was considering closing the remaining border checkpoints with Belarus to try to stem illegal migration.<\/p>\n
Poland says that Belarus has been encouraging people from the Middle East and Africa to travel to Belarus and then cross the border illegally to Poland.<\/p>\n
In 2021 the European Union accused Belarus’s authoritarian leader Alexander Lukashenko of facilitating the influx<\/a> in retaliation against sanctions.<\/p>\n In recent weeks Poland has closed four of the six checkpoints on the border with Belarus.<\/p>\n On Sunday Polish Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski said: “Due to the actions of Belarus, we are considering the closure of all border crossings. For now, we are studying the question of whether this will affect the Polish economy.”<\/p>\n<\/div>\n In her post Ms Tikhanovskaya wrote: “Initiatives to limit border traffic due to the regime’s ongoing provocations should target the dictator, not the people. We cannot abandon Belarusians to their fate behind a new iron curtain.”<\/p>\n She was referencing the physical division of Europe during the Cold War<\/a> between the Western countries and those connected to or influenced by the Soviet Union.<\/p>\n In 2020 Ms Tikhanovskaya went became a symbol of opposition when she ran against Mr Lukashenko in presidential elections after her husband was jailed<\/a> by the regime.<\/p>\n She claimed victory in the polls, which were widely thought to be rigged, but was forced into exile in Lithuania with her children the day after the vote.<\/p>\n She was later sentenced in absentia to 15 years in jail for treason and conspiracy to seize power.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n