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Poland defends entire EU’s interests: former head of German intelligence

“By protecting the border with Belarus, Poland defends the interests of the entire European Union, including Germany, for which Berlin should be grateful,” Hans-Georg Maaßen, former head of the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution (BfV), Germany’s domestic security agency, told the Polish press Agency (PAP).

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“I wish the federal government would give Poland the necessary staff and financial support in this regard,” he pointed out.

“What your country does is not only your task, but lies in the interest of Germany and the entire European Union. Germany, for its part, should change its migration policy, making it clear that it does not want any illegal immigration and will not tolerate it,” he stressed.

When asked to analyse the scenario of the border crisis, Mr Maaßen assessed that although Alyaksandr Lukashenka is the main culprit, other factors also play an important role, such as the desire to get rich by criminal groups dealing with illegal migration.

“Illegal immigration is also good business for the countries of origin [of migrants], as unemployed and politically problematic young men are leaving and become a source of urgently needed currency that they send from Europe… They often borrow large sums of money to pay the smugglers,” he pointed out.

Mr Maaßen positively assessed the actions of high EU representatives in reaction to the situation on the Polish-Belarusian border – Charles Michel and Ursula von der Leyen, the heads of the European Council and the European Commission. However, he stressed that “since 2015 we know that the protection of the EU’s external borders does not work.”

“It seems to me that Poland is now left to itself… We need the European Union, but most of all we need a complete reform of the European institutions so that they can once again serve the interests of the Community and the Member States, and not the ideological ideas of the Brussels bureaucracy,” he stressed.

“European states must do everything in their power to support Poland in preventing illegal
immigration. Contrary to what some Western European politicians say, they [those at the Polish-Belarusian border] are not refugees but illegal immigrants,” Mr Maaßen concluded.

The borders of Poland, Latvia and Lithuania have been under increasing migratory pressure in recent months. The countries blame a policy developed by Minsk aimed at destabilising the EU. Areas adjacent to Poland’s border with Belarus have been under a state of emergency since September 2.

On Tuesday, November 16, several hundred migrants, gathered near the closed border crossing in Kuźnica, eastern Poland, attacked Polish officers with stones, bottles and stun grenades. As reported by the Defence Ministry, a water cannon and tear gas were used against the aggressors. As a result of the attack, several police officers were injured.

According to the Polish Border Guard, more than 33,000 attempts to illegally cross the Polish-Belarusian border have been prevented since August.

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