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The EU and Belarusian foreign policy chiefs spoke directly about the migrant crisis for the first time on Sunday, even as Brussels prepares to impose sweeping new sanctions for human trafficking that Minsk said would be futile and “counter-productive”.
The EU and Belarusian foreign policy chiefs spoke directly about the migrant crisis for the first time on Sunday, even as Brussels prepares to impose sweeping new sanctions for human trafficking that Minsk said would be futile and “counter-productive”.
Josep Borrell said he had spoken to Foreign Minister Vladimir Makei by phone about “the precarious humanitarian situation” at the Belarus-Poland border — the EU’s eastern frontier.
“The current situation is unacceptable and must stop. People should not be used as weapons,” Borrell said in a tweet.
In Belarus’s statement about the conversation, Makei said any sanctions would be “hopeless” and “counter-productive”.
Tensions high at Poland-Belarus border as migrants weather freezing cold
Thousands of migrants from the Middle East are camped out on the EU-Belarus border, creating a stand-off between the EU and US on one side and Belarus and its ally Russia on the other.
Western countries accuse Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko’s regime of engineering the crisis by encouraging migrants to come to Belarus and then taking them to the border since the summer.
Belarus denies the charges and blames the West.
Russian President Vladimir Putin has also rejected accusations of being involved in the crisis and has urged the EU to speak…
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Source : france24
