NATO today condemned as “unacceptable” the way Belarus “uses” immigration, pushing migrants to the borders of Poland, a member state of the European Union and the North Atlantic Alliance, as tensions on the border between the two countries increase. .
This afternoon, a spokesman for the Polish government said that at present 3,000-4,000 migrants are near the Belarusian-Polish border and thousands more are ready to follow.
The Polish border guard also announced tonight that the country will close the border crossing with Belarus in Kuznika. “Due to the situation on the Polish border with Belarus, from tomorrow, 09/11 from 07:00 am. “(local time) the border traffic at the road border crossing in Kuznika will be stopped”, the border guard said on Twitter.
“Across Belarus, there are more than 10,000 people ready to cross the Polish border,” Peter Mueller told reporters.
“The use of migrants by the regime (of President Alexander Lukashenko) of Lukashenko as a hybrid tactic is unacceptable,” a NATO official said in a statement, expressing concern over the situation.
“We are concerned about the recent escalation of the border between Poland and Belarus. “We call on Belarus to comply with international law.”
According to the same official, NATO will guarantee the security of its member states and Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg will continue to closely monitor the situation, which “exerts pressure” on three allied countries: Lithuania, Latvia and Poland.
Earlier in the day, Polish authorities accused Belarus of trying to provoke a serious incident by posting videos on social media showing hundreds of migrants heading to the Polish border.
At the same time, Lithuania announced that it was moving troops to its border with Belarus, while considering a state of emergency on the Belarusian border.
The EU accuses Belarus of encouraging thousands of migrants from the Middle East and Africa to enter its territory, using them to avenge sanctions in Minsk for human rights abuses.
“This is a continuation of the Lukashenko regime’s desperate attempt to use people as pawns to destabilize the European Union,” European Commission spokesman Adalbert Jans told a news conference.
Citing Frontex estimates, the spokesman stressed that “several hundred” migrants are on the border between the two countries.
Peter Stano, a spokesman for European Union foreign policy chief Josep Borrell, has called for further EU sanctions against Minsk.
“We are facing a hybrid threat and we will not be left alone,” he said, adding that the issue would be raised at a meeting of EU foreign ministers in a week.
He added that the EU was in contact with the countries of origin of the migrants to explain to them how “the Lukashenko regime inhumanely and brutally treats people, their own citizens and puts them in very difficult situations, transporting them by plane to Belarus and pushing them to the European borders “.
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