EU countries must take responsibility for migrants at the Belarusian-Polish border. This was announced on Tuesday, November 9, by the Vatican’s spokesman for relations with states Paul Richard Gallagher.
“Our position is that we call on authorities across Europe to take responsibility when it comes to migrants and refugees. We call on all parties to take responsibility and resolve this very serious humanitarian crisis, ”he said at a press conference following talks with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov.
Gallagher noted that in Poland the church criticizes the government’s approach to this issue and tries to urge the authorities to take a more humane and flexible approach.
“I urge everyone to look at this situation not in terms of numbers, but <...> from the point of view of the fate of people like us who are faced with a very serious situation. Of course, there are those who are responsible for the development of this situation, and they must take their part of the responsibility, ”he concluded.
Earlier that day, Polish President Andrzej Duda said that several thousand migrants tried to break through the border from Belarus.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, in turn, pointed out that the migration crisis should be resolved in compliance with the norms of international humanitarian law. He called on the EU countries to avoid double standards in the current situation.
At the same time, Deputy Secretary of State of the Union State Aleksey Kubrin stressed that the situation with migrants is being aggravated by the European side. According to him, this also cannot but influence the Union State from the point of view of the formation of migration policy.
On November 9, the Polish Foreign Ministry called for an urgent imposition of sanctions against all individuals and legal entities involved, according to Warsaw, in organizing the situation with migrants on the border with Belarus. Lithuania, in turn, previously announced a decision to introduce a state of emergency in the border areas.
Also, Germany and Poland stated that they could not cope with the situation on the border on their own. The countries asked the European Union to help resolve the migration crisis.
Currently, several hundred migrants from Syria, Iraq and Iran have settled along the Belarusian-Polish border near the Bruzgo border crossing.
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