The European Union has imposed sanctions on 17 individuals and 11 entities, including the Syrian private airline Cham Wings, for facilitating illegal crossings of migrants from several countries to the Belarusian-Polish border.
“Cham Wings has increased the number of flights from Damascus to Minsk since the summer of 2021,” the European Union statement said on Friday.
“In Fall 2021, Cham Wings opened two new offices in Minsk so that the company could organize trips from Damascus. Therefore, the sanctions respond to the company’s contribution to illegal transit activities on the European Union’s external borders.”
Syria’s Cham Wings suspended flights to Belarus’ Minsk airport due to tensions on the border with Poland, following accusations of illegal crossings.
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Earlier in October, an EU Executive Commission spokesman said that the European Union was monitoring flights to Belarus from 20 countries, including Syria, in an effort to prevent the Belarussian government from allowing more migrants to travel to the EU border. Cham Wings was founded in 2007 and is based at the Damascus Airport.
In 2016, the company was sanctioned by the United States for transporting pro-Assad fighters to Syria and helping Assad’s military intelligence transport weapons and equipment.
For weeks, Belarus has been trying to exploit the asylum issue in Europe by granting visas to people from several Middle Eastern countries, including Syria, and pushing them to try to enter the European Union. Belarus’ ploy responded to sanctions imposed by the EU on Belarus, which followed a crackdown on the Belarusian political opposition in 2020.
This article was translated and edited by The Syrian Observer. The Syrian Observer has not verified the content of this story. Responsibility for the information and views set out in this article lies entirely with the author.
