Belarus says it wants EU to take migrants

Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko on Monday criticized the European Union for not taking in the 2,000 migrants stranded on the Poland-Belarus border amid high international tensions, according to Reuters.

“We must demand that the Germans take them,” Lukashenko said at a meeting with officials, claiming that the EU is not engaging with Belarus on the issue, according to The Associated Press.

He also alleged that German Chancellor Angela Merkel promised him that the EU would handle the migrant crisis when they spoke over the phone.

However, a German government spokesman refused Belarus’s request and said that taking in 2,000 migrants is “not a solution that is acceptable to Germany or the EU,” according to Reuters.

The West has accused Lukashenko’s government of encouraging the migrants to cross over to the EU as a way of getting back at Europe for sanctions imposed following his disputed 2020 election. The EU previously also announced plans to broaden sanctions against Belarus amid the migrant crisis along the country’s border with Poland. 

While Belarus has denied the accusation, Lukashenko recently told Belarusian press, “We need to get through to the Poles, to every Pole, and show them that we’re not barbarians, that we don’t want confrontation. We don’t need it. Because we understand that if we go too far, war is unavoidable.”

Poland has said it is protecting the border for all of Europe and has received support from the EU, NATO and the U.S, according to the AP.

Thousands of migrants, a majority of whom are from Iraq and Afghanistan, have been stranded at Belarus’s border with Poland in hopes that they can make it into the EU.

They have faced freezing temperatures, and at least 13 have died at the border as Poland continues to block their entry, Reuters reported.