Migrants: Germany calls for new EU sanctions against Belarus – franceinfo

“We will sanction all those who participate in the targeted smuggling of migrants.” Germany is in favor of new European Union sanctions against Belarus, the German foreign minister said on Wednesday (November 10th). Heiko Maas accuses Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko of exploiting “unscrupulous” migrants by sending them to the border with Poland. The EU will work to “extend and strengthen (…) the sanctions against the Lukashenko regime”, assured the head of German diplomacy in a statement.

>> On the borders of Europe, migrants trapped in a “hybrid war” between Belarus and Poland

“Lukashenko must realize that his calculations are not working”, said the German minister, as thousands of desperate migrants are trapped by freezing cold on the border between Belarus and Poland. Warsaw accuses Minsk and Moscow of using them to destabilize European security.

Europeans have accused Alexander Lukashenko for months of fueling the crisis by issuing visas to migrants in revenge for European sanctions taken against his country for its repression of the opposition. President Lukashenko, a close ally of Moscow, stressed that his country “will not kneel” ahead of the EU.