The Polish government has released footage purporting to show child migrants being “prepped” to provoke sympathy for the waiting cameras of the media, with at least one having cigarette smoke blown in their face to make tears.
While women and children appear to make a small fraction of the thousands bussed to the EU’s eastern frontier by the regime in Minsk, nevertheless those present appear to have been prepared to evoke pathos for the waiting cameras of the media this week. Further cameras on the other side of the fence caught footage which the Polish government claims unveils the charade, however.
The apparent harassment of the children by their migrant handlers to produce tears for the waiting media has been criticised as “propaganda activities” at the hastily re-inforced border by the Polish government and its spokesmen.
“Pictures of crying children are used to put additional pressure on Poland,” wrote National Security Department spokesman Stanisław Żaryn as he shared a video appearing to show migrant men blow smoke in the faces of small children to supposedly induce tears.
Poland’s Ministry of Defence also released footage in which migrant women and children are taken to the front of the border where they are met with a slew of camera crews on the Belarussian side of the fence.
According to the Polish government, the video showed the Belarussian media creating “propaganda materials”.
The Polish government has previously claimed that migrants were being “instructed” on how to act sympathetic by the “Belarusian security services”, sharing screenshots of Arabic messages allegedly sent to migrants, in which migrants are instructed to “Take the kids, hug them, look dirty and tired.”
The migrant crisis on the EU’s Eastern frontier is itself a manufactured situation, Warsaw and Brussels claim, alleging that Alexander Lukashenko’s government is committing “hybrid warfare” against Poland, Lithuania, and Latvia by trafficking migrants into Minsk on passenger jets direct from the Middle East.
It has been suggested that Lukashenko is attempting to use migrants as a retaliatory strike after the European Union sanctioned the former Soviet state earlier this year after it diverted a Ryanair flight in order to imprison a dissident journalist.
The migrants themselves have also reportedly been duped by the Lukashenko regime, with illegals claiming to have been told that they would be given free passage to Germany if they reach EU soil, a claim both Poland and Germany have denied.
With such promises failing to materialise, the situation at the Polish border has descended into violent scenes twice in the past week, including on Tuesday when migrants hurled stones at the Poles, who in turn used water cannons to push the migrants back from makeshift border barricades.
Follow Kurt Zindulka on Twitter here @KurtZindulka
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