MOSCOW (AP) — The authoritarian leader of Belarus on Monday sharply criticized the European Union for its refusal to hold talks on the influx of migrants on the country’s border with Poland.
President Alexander Lukashenko urged Germany to accommodate about 2,000 migrants who had remained on the border with Poland and slammed EU officials for refusing to negotiate an end to the standoff.
“We must demand that the Germans take them,” Lukashenko said at a meeting with officials.
He charged that German Chancellor Angela Merkel promised him that the EU will deal with the issue when they spoke by phone earlier this month.
“I’m still waiting for the EU to give us a response about 2,000 refugees,” Lukashenko said. “They haven’t even contacted us.”
EU spokesman Peter Stano said the bloc has been “in touch with a number of Belarussian interlocutors,” adding that it is looking into the possibility of holding talks with U.N. agencies and Belarussian officials at a technical expert level on how to help facilitate the repatriation of those stuck in Belarus.
The EU has accused Lukashenko’s government of orchestrating the migration surge on its eastern flank as a “hybrid attack” in retaliation for the bloc’s sanctions over the crackdown by Belarusian authorities on domestic protests. Belarus denies the charge.
German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas on Monday again denounced the “cynical misuse of migrants” by Lukashenko’s government.
Poland is pushing the migrants back, saying it’s protecting the border for all of Europe. It has received strong declarations of support from the EU, NATO and the U.S.
At least a dozen migrants have died in the forests near the border. Others have abandoned hopes of reaching Europe and were flown back to the Middle East.
Humanitarian organizations and Poland’s influential Roman Catholic Church have been pressing to be allowed to bring aid to the stranded migrants, and nongovernmental organizations in Poland have organized charity collections.
Lukashenko on Monday shot back at Polish authorities, accusing them of “trying to solve their internal and external problems by putting pressure on Belarus and casting it as a culprit for Poland’s problems.”
He insisted the migrants have been heading west to reach relatives in Germany and many need medical treatment.
“We haven’t been shuttling anyone across the border and we won’t do that,” he said. “Those people are heading there on their own. We don’t want any confrontation … but we will protect those hapless folks as much as we can.”
Poland’s Border Guard spokeswoman Anna Michalska said there were over 300 attempts by migrants Sunday to get through the razor wire border fence into the EU. Most were prevented while about 60 people who got through were turned back, she said.
In one case, a group of around 150 “aggressive foreigners” tried to cross, aided by Belarus forces who used laser pointers and bright spotlights to blind Polish border guards, Michalska said.
She said Poland is planning return flights for hundreds of Iraqi migrants now in the country’s guarded centers for foreigners.
Of about 1,900 migrants staying in those centers, more than 1,200 are Iraqis, she said. About 700 have applied for international protection and are waiting for a decision whether they will be able to stay in the EU. Poland would like to fly the others back.
Michalska said Poland is seeking permission from Baghdad to fly the first group of about 80 Iraqis in the coming days on a chartered flight. About 20 of them have received deportation decisions.
“We are working with the Iraqi side that needs to agree to receive its citizens back,” Michalska said.
Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki said Sunday that Poland was ready to finance return flights for migrants, and the European border agency Frontex has said it was working with Poland on such flights.
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Scislowska reported from Warsaw, Poland. Raf Casert in Brussels contributed to this report.
