WARSAW, Poland: Belarus’ exiled opposition leader Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya on Wednesday urged the global community to stop a “humanitarian catastrophe” which she said is being created by the Belarusian regime facilitating largescale migration into the European Union.
Thousands of migrants from Syria, Iraq, Afghanistan and Africa have been lured to Belarus on tourist visas and encouraged to cross into Poland, Lithuania, and to a lesser extent Latvia — all three EU nations that border Belarus.
Several recently died of exhaustion as they tried to get from Belarus to Poland across an area of forests and swamps.
Tsikhanouskaya warned that as winter approaches, she fears those deaths “will grow into dozens.”
“So I urge the United Nations and the world community to act to stop the humanitarian catastrophe that’s about to happen in the middle of Europe,” she told a press conference during the Warsaw Security Forum.
During her visit to Warsaw she also met with Polish President Andrzej Duda and other Polish leaders, who have been supportive of the efforts of the Belarusian opposition and given succor to people targeted by the regime in Minsk.
Tsikhanouskaya was the main opposition challenger to longtime authoritarian President Alexander Lukashenko in last year’s disputed election. She now lives in exile in Lithuania.
Poland has taken a tough approach to securing its border, saying it must defend its national security in the face of a “hybrid war” attack by Lukashenko.
“It’s revenge (against) Poland and Lithuania for their support of the Belarusian democratic movement,” Tsikhanouskaya said.
She did not directly criticize Poland’s approach, which has involved denying migrants the right to apply for asylum and pushing some families with children back across the border, in violation of international law. But she noted that “people who are crossing the border are not guilty. They are victims.”
She said that there are still some 10,000 to 15,000 migrants now in Belarus hoping to make the crossing into the EU, and that the number was growing. She did not specify the source of the numbers she quoted.
Belarus opposition leader warns of border migration crisis
https://arab.news/bkc3v
Belarus opposition leader warns of border migration crisis
- Thousands of migrants from Syria, Iraq, Afghanistan and Africa have been lured to Belarus on tourist visas
- Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya warned that as winter approaches, she fears those deaths "will grow into dozens”
Prabowo, Trump expected to sign Indonesia-US tariff deal in January 2026
- Deal will mean US tariffs on Indonesian products are cut from a threatened 32 percent to 19 percent
- Jakarta committed to scrap tariffs on more than 99 percent of US goods
JAKARTA: Indonesia expects to sign a tariff deal with the US in early 2026 after reaching an agreement on “all substantive issues,” Jakarta's chief negotiator said on Tuesday.
Indonesia’s Coordinating Minister for Economic Affairs Airlangga Hartarto met with US trade representative Jamieson Greer in Washington this week to finalize an Indonesia-US trade deal, following a series of discussions that took place after the two countries agreed on a framework for negotiations in July.
“All substantive issues laid out in the Agreement on Reciprocal Trade have been agreed upon by the two sides, including both the main and technical issues,” Hartarto said in an online briefing.
Officials from both countries are now working to set up a meeting between Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto and US President Donald Trump.
It will take place after Indonesian and US technical teams meet in the second week of January for a legal scrubbing, or a final clean-up of an agreement text.
“We are expecting that the upcoming technical process will wrap up in time as scheduled, so that at the end of January 2026 President Prabowo and President Trump can sign the Agreement on Reciprocal Trade,” Hartarto said.
Indonesian trade negotiators have been in “intensive” talks with their Washington counterparts since Trump threatened to levy a 32 percent duty on Indonesian exports.
Under the July framework, US tariffs on Indonesian imports were lowered to 19 percent, with Jakarta committing to measures to balance trade with Washington, including removing tariffs on more than 99 percent of American imports and scrapping all non-tariff barriers facing American companies.
Jakarta also pledged to import $15 billion worth of energy products and $4.5 billion worth of agricultural products such as soybeans, wheat and cotton, from the US.
“Indonesia will also get tariff exemptions on top Indonesian goods, such as palm oil, coffee, cocoa,” Hartarto said.
“This is certainly good news, especially for Indonesian industries directly impacted by the tariff policy, especially labor-intensive sectors that employ around 5 million workers.”
In the past decade, Indonesia has consistently posted trade surpluses with the US, its second-largest export market after China.
From January to October, data from the Indonesian trade ministry showed two-way trade valued at nearly $36.2 billion, with Jakarta posting a $14.9 billion surplus.
