Belarus is weaponizing human beings. For years, Europe has done the same, in reverse

Poland’s prime minister, Mateusz Morawiecki, was spot on when he said that the border crisis between his country and Belarus “is a war in which civilians and media messages are the ammunition.”

In granting tourist visas to thousands of people from Iraq, Syria and elsewhere in the Middle East, Belarus is weaponizing human beings. Its autocratic leader, Alexander Lukashenko, is trying to force the European Union (EU) to lift economic sanctions. The strategy is simple: flood Europe with refugees until it raises its hands in surrender. Enough. For god’s sakes, keep them away. We’ll pay you.

Mr Lukashenko is following a simple, effective and familiar playbook. Turkey’s Recep Tayyip Erdogan did something similar in 2015 to frighten the EU into paying the six billion euros it had agreed in order to keep Syrian refugees away from Europe’s borders. When Mr Erdogan allowed hundreds of thousands of migrants to pass through his country, it concentrated minds in European capitals and he got his mone…