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Germany: Calls on EU to help stem flow from Belarus

Germany today called on the European Union to “take action” to help prevent a mass influx of migrants, as thousands of people have gathered on the Belarus-Poland border.

“Poland or Germany cannot tackle the problem alone,” Interior Minister Horst Seehofer told the tabloid Bild newspaper, calling on the EU to form a “common front”.

“We have to help the Polish government to ensure the security of its external borders. That should be a matter for the European Commission. I call for action now,” he said.

He made the remarks after Poland said it had prevented hundreds of migrants from trying to cross its border with Belarus illegally and that thousands more had gathered in that part of the EU’s external border.

“We are afraid that there will be no escalation of this kind of action on the Polish border in the near future, and that it will be armed in nature,” Piotr Miller, a spokesman for the Polish government, told reporters yesterday.

Horst Seehofer stressed that he supports Poland’s decision to build a wall on the border with Belarus.

“We can not criticize (…) the protection of the EU ‘s external borders,” he said.

“Without the use of firearms, of course, but with different means available,” he added.

The EU has accused Belarussian President Alexander Lukashenko of airlifting migrants and refugees from the Middle East and Africa to Minsk, the capital of the country, and then sending them to cross the border into European Union in retaliation. for the sanctions imposed on his government by Brussels over the suppression of the Belarusian opposition.

Mr Lukashenko has denied the allegations.

Faced with the growing crisis, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen on Monday called on EU member states to approve new sanctions.

“The instrumentalization of immigrants for political purposes is unacceptable,” the commission chairwoman said in a press release (24907637).

In addition to imposing new sanctions on Minsk, he stressed that the EU “will consider how to impose sanctions on third-country airlines” transporting migrants to Belarus.

Germany, which borders Poland, has seen a sharp rise in the number of migrants and refugees from Belarus. In October alone, they reached 5,000, according to German authorities.

Berlin responded by stepping up border controls with Poland and deploying additional police officers there.

“Germany could very quickly send police forces to help Poland, if it so wishes,” Warsaw told Bild.

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Source From: Capital

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