• Belarus migrants: Berlin calls for a halt to flights or harsh sanctions and Warsaw wants NATO consultations

  • Migrants.

    Poland: by mid-2022 there will be a wall on the Belarusian border

  • Putin: we have nothing to do with the migrant crisis in Belarus

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November 15, 2021Today the Council of Foreign Ministers in Brussels. Various issues are on the table, including the crisis on the border between Belarus and Poland where thousands of migrants are massed, refugees awaiting a solution. "Today we will approve a new package of sanctions against Belarusians responsible for this situation and we will broaden the" sanctions "model to include other people, airlines and travel agencies involved in this illegal migrant situation", are the words of the High Representative. EU Josep Borrell before joining the Foreign Affairs Council in Brussels, recalling that the situation in Belarus will be reviewed at the current meeting.



But he assured through the press "We will not talk about any military action". 



Meanwhile, the Belarusian president Lukashenko declares that he does not want a border conflict, "if anything, the conflict is necessary for Poland, but it would be absolutely harmful for us", said the leader quoted by the state news agency Belta, later picked up by the Russian media. "Belarus - he added - is ready to send migrants back to their homeland, but they do not want to return". 



"Our journalists and others draw correct conclusions, which is that Poland needs this conflict today. There are more than enough internal problems, problems with the European Union," he continued during a meeting with a working group on the draft constitutional reform.



Spain "asks the EU for a common, firm, clear and solid response with member countries", said the Spanish Foreign Minister, Josè Manuel Albares Bueno, before joining the European Council of Foreign Ministers, regarding the crisis. Belarusian and in general to the dossiers on migrants. 



"As regards the hybrid actions by Belarus, we hope that today there is the political will on the part of the EU to impose new restrictive measures" in Minsk "for this difficult situation at the borders and we express solidarity with Poland, Lithuania and Latvia", Estonia's foreign minister Eva-Maria Liimets said before joining the Council. But the Ukrainian question is also on the table. "Another theme is Ukraine. We support their territorial integrity and wish them the best", he specified. 



"We must ensure that the Minsk airport becomes a no fly zone and that no aircraft with migrants can land there", proposed, instead, the foreign minister of Lithuania, Gabrielius Landsbergis, on his arrival in Brussels, underlining the same time the need to "provide safe passage for people already in Belarus, so that they can return to their countries". 



"Today we will listen to the Ukrainian foreign minister on the latest developments and new tensions with Russia. It is important for the EU to express full solidarity" in Kiev.

This was stated by Pekka Haavisto, Finland's foreign minister, before joining the foreign affairs council in Brussels.

"The other theme is Belarus - he added -, the pressure must increase against" Minsk "to stop these hybrid actions, we express solidarity with Poland, Lithuania and Latvia".