At least some of the Belarusian travel agencies involved in the transportation of citizens of the Middle Eastern countries to the European Union during the migration crisis in the summer of 2021 were associated with the security forces. This conclusion was made by the journalists of the Belarusian Investigative Center (BRC), having studied the data of the owners of these companies.
In June 2021, Alexander Lukashenko, in response to the sanctions imposed after the detention of Roman Protasevich, said that he would not prevent people who were trying to illegally enter the European Union through the territory of Belarus, after which an influx of migrants from the countries of the Middle East began to Poland and Lithuania. Moreover, Belarus began actively issuing visas to foreigners in order to then send them to neighboring countries.
The BRC believes that the Belarusian authorities actually started planning the migration crisis earlier. Back in May 2021, a former employee of the Ministry of Internal Affairs Dmitry Korobov, on behalf of the Oscartour company, concluded an agreement on cooperation in the field of international tourism between the Arab countries and Belarus with the state tour operator Tsentrkurort, which is part of the Lukashenka Affairs Department. A few days later, direct flights between Minsk and Baghdad were opened, and Tsentrkurort began to issue hundreds of invitations for “tourists”. According to these invitations, on the basis of which visas were issued, foreigners came to hunt, organized by the Belarusian Society of Hunters and Fishermen. They were accommodated in the hotels of the Presidential Administration.
Soon the media found out about this scheme, and then private firms that were not formally affiliated with the state began to issue invitations. The list of 12 companies accredited for such activities was published by the Belarusian Embassy in Syria. Having studied this list, the BRC journalists found out that some of these firms are connected with law enforcement agencies: the police, the army, the border committee.
So, the owner of the New Flat company, Irina Revenko, turned out to be the wife of Dmitry Revenko, an operative of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, whose brother, Valery, at that time served as deputy head of the Department of International Military Cooperation, and later headed this department. After the migration crisis ended, Revenko sold the company.
The co-owner of another company, Xaman Travel, Olga Sharak was married to Dmitry Sharak, a serviceman from the military unit where the headquarters of the 15th anti-aircraft missile brigade of the Northwestern Operational-Tactical Command of the Air Force and Air Defense Forces is stationed.
The head of the Bailing Tour company, Alexander Payukov, himself turned out to be a former border guard. He was an officer in the military unit 1250, where, according to the Belarusian media, Viktor Lukashenko, the eldest son of the president of the country, served in the military. The BRC believes that Alexander Payukov is the Belarusian border guard Alexander P., against whom a criminal case was initiated in Poland in 2012. This man was suspected of illegally transporting 1.3 thousand migrants from Asia across the Belarusian-Polish border. Convictions were found at the owners of two more firms from the list.
The BRC notes that a new migration crisis is brewing on the border between Belarus and the EU. As the investigators found out, now migrants from Afghanistan, Syria, Yemen, Turkey arrive in Minsk or Brest through Russia, after which they get over the fence on the border with Poland. On the other hand, they are picked up by pre-hired drivers and taken to Germany. The entire journey costs an average of $9.5 thousand. The BRC believes that during the month the organizers of this flow sent about 1,400 people to Germany, receiving $ 13.5 million in net profit. Who is behind the flow of migrants this time is unknown.
