MOSCOW, November 15. /TASS/. The current migration crisis at the Belarusian-Polish border is by large a European affair, so, Russia sees no need in raising this matter at the United Nations, Russia’s First Deputy Permanent Representative to the United Nations Dmitry Polyansky said on Monday.
"As a matter of fact, this issue is about problems inside the European Union," he said in an interview with the Rossiya-24 television channel. "As you know, troops are deployed on the Polish side of the border not to let migrants enter the country. It runs counter to the European Union’s norms and principles, which are applied in other situations. And the United Nations has absolutely nothing to do with it. So, there is no need to raise this matter in any of the United Nations formats, such as the Security Council or the General Assembly."
He noted however that any of the United Nations Security Council member nations may initiate discussion of this problem in future. Sometimes, countries initiate discussion of issues outside the organization’s agenda, for instance, the topic of Belarus. "Neither Belarus nor anything linked with it is on the agenda of the Security Council. It is quite typical. It is usually done to speak with journalists after such a meeting and share own vision of the situation, regardless of what was really happening behind closed doors," Polyansky explained.
Such actions, in his words, entail wrong interpretations in the press. "Some media, in particular, the BBC or the Guardian, as far as I know, published wrong reports that the Security Council had allegedly condemned the Belarusian authorities and so on, interpreting statements of several Western diplomats as a collective opinion of the Security Council. It is utterly wrong. It is at least misconception, or even disinformation," he added.
The migration crisis at Belarus’ border with Poland, Lithuania and Latvia deteriorated dramatically on November 8, when several thousand migrants approached the Polish border and have been staying in the border area ever since. From time to time they try to break through the fences and cross into Poland, but are stopped by Polish law enforcers. Currently, there are around 2,000 migrants in the improvised camp at the border.
EU countries accuse Minsk of deliberate escalation of the crisis and call for more sanctions against Belarus. Meanwhile, Lukashenko said that the blame for this situation rests on Western countries because people are fleeing their countries gripped by hostilities provoked by their actions.