Belarus is working “actively” to repatriate migrants who have set up makeshift camps on the country’s border with the EU, Belarussian President Alexander Lukashenko said today, but stressed that they did not want to leave.
“We are ready, as we always have been, to put them all on planes (…) which will take them home,” Lukashenko was quoted as saying by the state-run Belta news agency.
“An intense campaign is being carried out to convince these people ‘please come back’, but no one wants that,” he added.
Thousands of migrants, mostly from the Middle East, have been stranded on the border between Belarus and Poland for days.
“I want to emphasize this: we do not want any border conflict. It would be very sad,” he said, adding that Poland “needs” this crisis because of its “internal problems” and the tension with it. its partners in the EU.
The EU accuses Minsk of organizing these migratory flows by issuing entry permits and chartering planes to transport migrants so that they can then cross the border into Poland and cross into the EU in retaliation for Western sanctions imposed on the Lukashenko regime. last year after the violent suppression of opposition demonstrations.
In this context, the Belarusian airline Balavia announced on Sunday that Syrians, Iraqis, Afghans and Yemenis are no longer allowed to board its aircraft in Dubai bound for Belarus.
Following pressure from European diplomats, Turkey also banned Syrians, Iraqis and Yemenis from traveling to Belarus.
Private Syrian airline Charm Wings Airlines has also suspended flights to Minsk.
At the same time, the Belarusian Foreign Ministry today denied as “absurd” the accusations of the West that the immigration crisis on the country’s borders is being carried out by Minsk.
Ministry spokesman Anatoly Glaz, speaking to Sputnik, also denied that Belavia was smuggling migrants in the past or that it planned to do so in the future.
“We have stated quite clearly, repeatedly and at various levels: the national airline OJSC Belavia has never transported, does not transport and will not transport refugees or irregular migrants,” he said.
SOURCE: AMPE
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Source From: Capital
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