Crisis management in the realm of migration and asylum at Belarusian borders: the contradictions and similarities between protecting EU interests and protecting asylum seekers

Abstract

The migration crisis of 2015 hit migration policy in the European Union hard. It served as a catalyst for change, as it revealed all the weaknesses of the European Union's approach towards migration. Therefore, it became clear that the usual mechanisms could not properly cope with the large flow of migrants. This all-entailed migration reforms, but no sooner had the European Union finalised the reforms than in 2021 another migration crisis occurs on the border with Belarus. This migration crisis is not all that simple, as it is provoked by the President of Belarus, that is, it is happening because of the “instrumentalisation” of migrants. Migrants in this situation are an instrument for Belarus to achieve its goal and the European Union has a difficult task to cope with migration flows, but at the same time not to forget about its important values on which the union is built.