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President describes migrant situation on Belarusian border as humanitarian disaster

According to Alexander Lukashenko, neighboring countries have declared a state of emergency "and allow no one to enter so that no one knows that people are dying"

Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko Nikolai Petrov/BelTA/TASS

Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko

© Nikolai Petrov/BelTA/TASS

MINSK, September 27. /TASS/. The migrant situation on the Belarusian border can be described as a humanitarian disaster, Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko said at a meeting with the top officials from the security, defense and law enforcement agencies on Monday.

"Let's discuss what to do next. It's not acceptable to let people suffer. We provided them with clothes, food and firewood, as well as with tents. However, they will freeze to death in the winter. These people came thousands of kilometers from the south. In short, there is a humanitarian disaster on the border," he pointed out, as cited by the BelTA news agency.

According to him, Belarus' neighboring countries have declared a state of emergency "and allow no one to enter so that no one knows that people are dying."

Lukashenko blamed neighboring countries for the ill-treatment of migrants who cross the border to enter their territory. The head of state said that it was not the Belarusian authorities who organized migrant flows, which is what the Lithuanian government and other EU countries allege, but criminal groups based in the European Union. The Belarusian president once again rejected accusations of organizing illegal migration, slamming them as nonsense. He pointed out that Western countries were actually to blame for the migration crisis and needed to tackle it.

Lukashenko also highlighted the pressure that Belarus was facing from Poland. "You started a hybrid war against us, you are waging a sanctions war and still, you what us to protect you here? It won't happen," the Belarusian leader stressed.

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Belarus Alexander Lukashenko

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