Jakarta, CNBC Indonesia – Tensions between the European Union (EU) and Russia are back. This time it was caused by a wave of Middle Eastern immigrants trying to enter Poland from Belarus illegally.
Quotes AFP, Polish Prime Minister (PM) Mateusz Morawiecki said two parties were in the vortex of this migrant crisis. He directly pointed to Russian President Vladimir Putin and Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko as the masterminds of this flow of illegal migrants.
“This attack by Lukashenko has a brain in Moscow, the mastermind is President Putin,” Morawiecki told the Polish parliament, quoted Wednesday (11/10/2021).
The same is also addressed from Brussels. EU spokesman, Peter Stano, said that this was a series of retaliatory actions by Belarus and Russia for the sanctions imposed by the EU.
“This is part of the inhumane and downright gangster-style approach of the Lukashenko regime,” he said.
Meanwhile, this accusation received a strong reaction from Moscow. Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov blamed the Western military’s “adventure” in the Middle East. This encourages migrants to leave the region.
“Why, when it comes to refugees heading to the EU from Turkey, does the EU provide funds to keep them on Turkish soil?” he told reporters.
“Why can’t Belarusians be helped in the same way?”
The crisis peaked on Monday when hundreds of migrants marched to the border in an attempt to cross but were confronted by rows of Polish police, soldiers and border guards behind barbed wire. Both Poland and Belarus say between 3,000 and 4,000 migrants are now in improvised camps on the border, near the Polish village of Kuznica.
Journalists were reportedly barred from entering the area. But videos released by Belarusian and Polish authorities showed migrants congregating along barbed wire, huddled by fires and in tents as temperatures hovered around freezing.
(tps/tps)
– .
