MINSK, July 21. /TASS/. European Union countries are not keeping their promises to migrants and refugees, thus provoking a migration crisis on Belarus’ border with the European Union, chief of the Belarusian State Border Committee Konstantin Molostov said.
"The entire world is facing a difficult migration situation. And Belarus is no exception. Today, as we remember, the pressing migration situation along our western borders stems from the fact that the European Union once offered political asylum, jobs and so on to all migrants," he said in an interview with the ONT television channel.
"Now, the situation is opposite," he said. "Now, migrants who are seeking political asylum in the Baltic countries and Poland are subject to forcible expulsion, suppression. Hence, the promises that once were given are not kept."
EU countries are accusing Minsk of the deliberate escalation of the migration crisis and imposing sanctions on Belarus. Thus, according to Warsaw, Belarus’ authorities allegedly bring migrants to the border and help them cross it. Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko blamed Western countries for the migration crisis because people are fleeing wars unleashed by them. Polish, Latvian and Lithuanian law enforcement forces regularly squeeze migrants from Africa and Middle East seeking to get to Europe to the Belarusian territory, leaving their dead bodies on the border. More than 50 deaths of refugees have been reported on Belarus’ territory near the border with EU countries since the outbreak of the migration crisis in 2021.