BERLIN, November 10. /TASS/. Acting German Chancellor Angela Merkel asked Russian President Vladimir Putin in their telephone conversation on Wednesday to exert his influence over Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko amid the influx of illegal migrants to the European Union, Merkel said at a press conference at the German government residence in Meseberg, near Berlin, before meeting with Portuguese Prime Minister Antonio Costa and Latvian Prime Minister Krisjanis Karins.
"I would like to thank those countries that care about protecting the external borders. They are Latvia, Lithuania and Poland," Merkel said noting that footage from the border with Belarus "gives cause for alarm."
"Today I had a phone conversation with Russian President Putin and asked him to exert influence on Lukashenko, as in this case people are being used," she said.
"They [the migrants] are, so to speak, victims of inhumane policy and something must be done about this. We will be also discussing today how we can support the countries bordering Belarus and what we can do in general to resolve this crisis," Merkel said.
According to the acting chancellor, it is not still possible to find a humanitarian solution.
"On the other hand, the EU’s external border must be protected," Merkel stressed.
Reuters reported earlier citing an EU official that later on Wednesday Merkel and Putin would hold another phone conversation on the refugee crisis on the border between Belarus and the European Union.
The migrant crisis escalated dramatically on November 8 at the border of Belarus with Poland, Lithuania and Latvia, where migrants have been flocking to since the beginning of 2021. Several thousand people have approached the Polish border from Belarusian territory and are not leaving the border area. Some of them tried to storm into Poland by getting over the barbed wire fence. European Union nations have accused Minsk of deliberate escalation and called for sanctions. Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko said that Western states are to shoulder the blame for the crisis as their actions make people flee from war.