According to the Polish news agency PAP, the prime ministers of Poland, Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia accused Belarusian leader Alexander Lukashenko of planning and organizing the current migration crisis at the borders. Recently, more and more migrants from Iraq, Syria and Afghanistan are trying to get from Belarus to the neighboring member states of the European Union.
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“A new solid fence 2.5 meters high will be built on the border with Belarus. More soldiers will be involved in the help of the border guard, “said the Polish Minister of Defense. Already last week, the Polish government announced that it had sent over 900 troops to the border and was securing 150 kilometers of the border line with barbed wire.
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Poland is facing an attack
“We are facing an attack on Poland. It is an attempt to provoke a migration crisis, “the minister told a news conference, according to the AP agency. He specified that the planned fence would be similar to the one built by Hungary on the border with Serbia years ago due to the influx of migrants.
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According to Poland and the Baltic states, Lukashenko wants to avenge migrants against his regime by sending migrants to the borders with EU member states. According to the media, the situation of 24 people blocked on the Polish-Belarusian border near the village of Usnarz Górny has become a symbol of the problem. Belarusian troops do not want to let the group back to Belarus, while Polish border guards prevent them from entering Poland.
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Joint statement
The Prime Ministers of Poland, Mateusz Morawiecki, Lithuania’s Ingrida Šimonytéová, Latvia’s Krišjánis Kariňš and Estonia’s Kaja Kallasová, issued a joint statement expressing serious concern about the situation on the border between Poland, Lithuania and Latvia and Belarus.
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“The use of migrants to destabilize neighboring countries is a clear violation of international law and should be seen as a hybrid attack on Lithuania, Latvia and Poland, and as such against the European Union as a whole,” the prime minister said in a statement. According to them, “it is high time to draw the attention of the UN, and in particular the Security Council, to the problem of inappropriate treatment of migrants on Belarusian territory.”
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Temporary campground
According to Poles on the Belarusian side of the border, there has been a temporary camp of 24 migrants near the village of Usnarz Górny for 15 days, accompanied by Belarusian soldiers who tried to enter Poland illegally. The PAP wrote that ten armed Belarusian soldiers were preventing them from returning to Belarus. On the other hand, the transition to Poland does not allow them to allow a border guard with six vehicles.
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The opinion of the Polish public on the situation is not uniform. Some people support the decisive action of the Polish authorities, but others call for a group of migrants to be allowed into the country for humanitarian reasons.
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In addition to Poland, Lithuania also intends to build a hundreds of kilometers long barrier on the border with Belarus. Earlier this month, the European Commission described the plan to build a fence as a “good idea”, but said it would not contribute to its financing.
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