MINSK, November 15./TASS/. The State Border Committee of Belarus has dismissed accusations from the European Union hurled out at Belarus for allegedly organizing migration flows, saying that since August 1 alone, the Belarusian side has denied entry to about 8,000 foreign nationals, committee’s Spokesman Anton Bychkovsky told TASS on Monday.
"It is rather strange to hear accusations from the European Union targeting Belarusian authorities for organizing migration flows against the background of evident data - from August 1 of this year, which is just two months and a half, some 8,000 people were refused entry into Belarus," Bychkovsky said.
According to him, another 5,000 foreign nationals who have entered Belarus on legal grounds within this time, had to leave Belarus due to preventive action against violations of the migration legislation. "And these are potential migrants. And these are concrete, documented facts," the spokesman said.
The migrant crisis on the Belarusian border with Latvia, Lithuania and Poland where migrants have been flocking since the beginning of the year, sharply aggravated on November 8. Several thousand people approached the Polish border from Belarus and refused to leave the area. EU countries have accused Minsk of the intentional escalation of the crisis and have called for sanctions. Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko stated that the Western countries themselves were to blame for the situation since people were fleeing the war in their homelands because of the West’s actions.