Belarus plans to send more migrants to enter EU, Lukashenko can’t be trusted: Poland
Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko is planning to send more migrants to the EU’s borders, Poland’s deputy foreign minister told the Sunday Telegraph on Saturday.
The deputy FM, Paweł Jabłonski, said the migrant crisis was not over despite the Belarusian authorities clearing camps and allowing repatriation flights to Iraq.
For the latest headlines, follow our Google News channel online or via the app.
“[Lukashenko] can’t be trusted. Absolutely not, falling for promises or declarations would be a big mistake,” Jabłonski said.
“He’s been promising a lot. Lukashenko can’t be trusted. He’s engineered this crisis, orchestrated it from the very beginning.”
Lukashenko has said last week that Belarus did not want the migrant crisis at the border with Poland to escalate into “conflict”, adding that his government was trying to “convince” people to leave but no one wanted to go back.
The EU accuses Belarus of flying in thousands of migrants from the Middle East and pushing them into neighboring Poland in attempt to strongarm Europe into dropping its sanctions.
Poland’s Border Guard says it has registered more than 34,000 attempts at illegally crossing into the country in 2021, including over 17,000 in October and over 6,000 in November.
Read more:
Poland says Belarus keeps bringing migrants to its border
Belarus does not want migrant ‘conflict’: Lukashenko
Iraqi flight returning migrants takes off from Belarus capital Minsk