Warsaw: Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki accused Russian President Vladimir Putin of Orchestrating migrant waves who tried to enter Poland illegally from Belarus, said “attacks” threaten the European Union.
The accusation came when thousands of desperate migrants were trapped in frozen weather on the Belarus-Poland border, where the presence of troops from both parties had raised concerns about confrontation.
Western critics for months said the strong leader of Belarus Alexander Lukashenko lured the migrants from the Middle East to his country and then sent them across the border for EU sanctions.
Morawiecki visited the guards, troops and police on the border on Tuesday before changing his views in Russia, Belarus’s main international supporters.
“This attack carried out by Lukashenko has the mastermind in Moscow, the mastermind is President Putin,” Morawiecki told the Polish parliament.
He said migrants were used as “human shields to mess up situations in Poland and EU”.
Germany, who accused Lukashenko “immoral” exploit migrants by sending it to the Polish border, called Wednesday for new EU sanctions on Belarus.
“Lukashenko must realize that the calculation does not work,” German Minister Heiko Maas said.
“The European Union cannot be squeezed.” EU diplomats told AFP blocks working to expand existing sanctions.
The EU said it also pushed more than a dozen countries, especially in the Middle East and Africa, to prevent their citizens from leaving for Belarus.
The European Union accused Lukashenko trying to disrupt the European Union by encouraging migrants to their borders – especially Poland and Lithuania – as retaliation for sanctions imposed on the records of sad human rights in Belarus.
“This is part of an inhuman and truly gangster approach from the Lukashenko regime,” European Commission spokesman Peter Stano told reporters on Tuesday.
Belarus denied claims and accused Poland to violate human rights by refusing to let the migrants enter.
“We are not looking for battles,” Lukashenko said to the Belta State News Agency.
“I’m not a crazy person, I understand well where it can lead,” he added.
“But we won’t kneel.” Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov blamed the “adventure” of the Western military in the Middle East because it encouraged migrants to escape from the region.
“Why, when it comes to refugees to the European Union from Turkey, does the EU provide funds to keep them in the Turkey?” He told reporters.
“Why can’t Belarus be helped in the same way?” The crisis came to head on Monday when hundreds of migrants tried to cross the border but were blocked by polish ranks, soldiers and border guards behind barbed wire.
Both Poland and Belarus said on Tuesday that between 3,000 and 4,000 migrants were now in improvised camps on the border, near the Kuznica Poland village.
Journalists have been blocked from the area, but videos released by Belarusian and Polish authorities showed migrants entered along the razor wire, curled up with fire and in tents because the temperature was hovering around freezing.
Belarus Guard Border services said migrants in the camp were mostly Kurds, that physical and mental conditions were “very poor”, and they did not have water, food and facilities to wash themselves.
“The situation is exacerbated by a large number of pregnant women and babies among refugees, who have to spend the night on the ground with negative temperatures,” he said.
Thousands of migrants have crossed or tried to cross from Belarus to East UE member countries Latvia, Lithuania and Poland in recent months.
Lithuanian Parliament members chose Tuesday to impose emergencies along the Belarus border, effective from midnight.
Some migrants who made him Poland told AFP last month that they had been stuck in the forest for a week, with Belarus refused to let them return to Minsk and fly home, while Poland would not let them cross to them.
Warsaw has made sharp criticism because of its hardline approach to the crisis that has seen guards routinely push the migrants and refugees on the border.