[24] Belarusian authorities and state-controlled travel agencies, together with some airlines operating in the Middle East, started advertising tours to Belarus and falsely promoting opportunities of easy entry into the European Union.

In 2020, Alexander Lukashenko, who has ruled Belarus since July 1994, claimed victory in that year's presidential election, which was widely considered rigged by European democracies and independent observers.

[59] Iraqi Airways doubled the frequency of its Baghdad-Minsk flights;[59] Belavia, Belarus's state-owned airline, also provided more offers to Middle East flyers.

[63] On 28 October, Syrian Cham Wings Airlines, after having made several charter flights, launched a daily connection from Damascus to the Belarusian capital.

[65][68] It was also reported that several travel agencies, including Oskartur, were given full access to the international zone of Minsk airport and delegated the power to issue visas, normally reserved for border guards.

[69][70] According to the investigation of LRT, the Lithuanian state media outlet, Iraqi Kurds claimed that they were told that entering the European Union via Belarus was legal.

[73] In July, reports emerged that Belarusian border guards had been instructed to turn a blind eye to undocumented migrants[48] and stop communicating with their Lithuanian counterparts.

Exiled politician Pavel Latushko claimed that the Belarusian military trained several war veterans from Iraq and Afghanistan to carry out attacks on borders and inside the EU.

[90][91] According to the Human Rights Watch research, Belarusian border guards gathered those migrants who were pushed back from Poland to Belarus detaining and abusing them in special sites and not letting them to return to Minsk or their home.

[92] The main purpose of the Lukashenko-led crisis is, according to Maksim Samorukov of the Carnegie Moscow Center, the attempt to legitimize his rigged reelection in 2020 and to lift sanctions by showing his ability to stop the influx of migrants.

[49] Lithuanian officials said that Belarusian authorities were encouraging illegal migration from Iraq and Syria to Lithuania by organizing groups of refugees and helping them cross the Belarusian-Lithuanian border.

[99][better source needed] Illegal migration from Belarus forced the Lithuanian government to declare a state-level "extraordinary situation" (similar but weaker legal regime than the state of emergency) on 2 July 2021.

[52] On a separate occasion in mid-July, Landsbergis stated that of those who crossed the border illegally, virtually none would be granted asylum and they would be detained in a tent camp until they could be sent home.

[120] By 7–8 August, the number of migrants crossing into the country dropped to almost zero after Lithuania sent reinforcements to the border area and began broadcasting warning messages in Arabic, Kurdish, French, Russian and English on loudspeakers.

[122][123][124] According to a poll conducted in August, 33% (the highest portion) of respondents in Lithuania answered that the best solution to the migration crisis would be to build a physical fence or a wall with Belarus.

[127][128] Following the granting of humanitarian visas to an Olympic athlete Krystsina Tsimanouskaya and her husband, Poland also accused Belarus of organizing hybrid warfare as the number of migrants crossing the Belarus–Poland border sharply increased when compared to the 2020 statistics.

[136] In early August, a group of 32 Afghans and 41 Iraqi Kurds appeared on the border in the aftermath of the fall of Kabul and were denied entry to either country, resulting in lines of military personnel on each side isolating the encamped migrants.

[137] As the number of attempted crossings increased, on 2 September, Poland announced a state of emergency in the areas close to the border, limiting the freedom of movement, freedom of assembly, and, controversially, ordering human rights activists and doctors unaffiliated with the Border Guard to go and effectively forbidding journalists from reporting from the area,[138][139] which Urszula Glensk [pl] described as an "informational blockade" instituted by Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki.

"[156] On 8 November, former Polish prime minister Donald Tusk called for Poland to invoke Article 4 of the North Atlantic Treaty, which would convene a meeting of NATO members to discuss the crisis.

[182][183] However, Russian President Vladimir Putin, whose consent was needed before closing the pipe, said that Lukashenko had not consulted him before raising the possibility of stopping gas deliveries coming from Russia to the EU via a pipeline through Belarus, adding that such a move would risk harming relations between the two countries.

[186][187] On November 13, a recording appeared on a Russian-language Telegram channel showing Belarusian soldiers handing out bread to immigrants, shooting near them to force them to get in line.

[215] The Cabinet of Ministers of Latvia declared a state of emergency from 11 August until 10 November in the border municipalities of Ludza, Krāslava, and Augšdaugava, and also in Daugavpils city.

[221] The same study, based on remote interviews with approximately 30 of the migrants, has also alleged extreme violence and even torture against them at the hands of the Latvian "commandos", police and soldiers.

"[227] The EU and Archbishop Wojciech Polak, the head of Catholic Church in Poland, called for humanitarian organizations such as Médecins Sans Frontières to gain access to the borders to help migrants.

[254] Despite Iraq stopping all direct flights to Belarus,[244] the number of arrivals did not reduce as many people instead began using indirect routes via Dubai, Turkey, Lebanon or Ukraine.

Belarus's director of the aviation department of the ministry of transportation, Artem Sikorsky, additionally said that they were forced to fly to Istanbul because they had been shut out of the European Union in May due to the grounding of the plane carrying Roman Protasevich.

On 25 August 2021, the court ordered Poland and Latvia to provide the migrants food, water, clothing, adequate medical care and temporary shelter, should the countries have such possibility.

[92] The groups "Grupa Granica"[281] and "Fundacja Ocalenie"[282] have emerged in Poland as activists providing humanitarian aid for migrants on the ground, as well as "Sienos Grupė" [283] in Lithuania.

Famous human right activists such as Anna Alboth, Nawal Soufi, Serge Kollwelter and others have been joining the cause of helping migrants and refugees.

[298][c] A former employee of the presidential administration, Anatoly Kotov, suggested that Belarusian authorities could organize a "drug problem" for the EU after the migration crisis ends.