Lukachenko lashes out at the EU for refusing to talk about immigrants

Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko on Monday accused European Union (EU) authorities of refusing to discuss with Minsk about the fate of the 2,000 immigrants blocked at the border with Poland. “I await a response from the EU on the 2,000 immigrants,” Lukashenko declared during a government meeting, reports the state press agency Belta.

Thousands of immigrants, mostly Iraqi Kurds, were locked for days in the cold, wet forest that serves as the border for Belarus and Poland, hoping to enter European Union territory. About 400 people were repatriated by plane to Iraq on Thursday, and about 2,000 were taken by Belarusian authorities to a hangar near the border.

Lukashenko said on Monday that he had asked the EU to take in the latter. German Chancellor Angela “Merkel promised me that they would examine the problem at the EU level,” said the Belarusian leader, who spoke twice by phone this week with the German leader. “But they are not doing it,” he explained.

The EU countries accuse Belarus of creating an artificial crisis by bringing in potential asylum seekers (especially from the Middle East), and taking them to the border promising that they would easily enter the EU, as a form of revenge for the sanctions against the regime. Belarus denies these accusations and reproaches the EU for its refusal to welcome immigrants.

According to the Belarusian president, European officials refuse to discuss this issue despite requests from the Belarusian Foreign Minister. “We have to demand that the Germans take them in,” Lukashenko said, referring to the immigrants.

Belarus said last week that Angela Merkel would negotiate with the EU a “humanitarian corridor” to evacuate the remaining 2,000 migrants to Germany. Something that the German government denied.