Lukashenko: I don’t intend to give order to border guards to protect EU from migration
The issue of migration is used by the West to put pressure on Belarus – as stated by President of Belarus Aleksandr Lukashenko during today’s solemn meeting dedicated to Independence Day
The Head of State explained, “Why am I bringing up this issue? Because it (this migration) is being used today to put pressure on us in the West. Our ‘friends’, our closest neighbours, the Polish leadership, especially persist in this. They have already got to the point (we received this information) that President Duda went to Xi Jinping to complain about Lukashenko, asking the Chinese leader ‘to use his influence on Lukashenko, on Putin, so that they stop this migration’.
Aleksandr Lukashenko once again recalled what he had already said more than once, “In order to answer the question of migration, it is necessary to ask simple questions: from where, to where and why. People are fleeing from those countries that the Americans and their allies have destroyed. We know this, we see who is running through Belarus. These are poor residents of Afghanistan, who sell everything in their home country for nothing, accumulate several thousand US Dollars and run away.”
The President answered the question of why migrants need money. In order, in particular, to pay those who help them in Belarus: taxi drivers, private carriers, etc.
“But the main thing is to pay Poles to go further to Germany. They aren’t fleeing to Poland. They aren’t running to these befuddled Lithuanian politicians. They’re going to Germany. Why are they going there? Because they were invited there once. You remember that. Well, if you have invited them, then arrange everything for them now. There is no one to work there anymore. Everyone is shouting that we already have a shortage of labour in Russia. Well, there is a certain tension on the labour market. There is practically no unemployment in Russia. You have invited them, so they’re coming to you. They’re not coming to us.”
The Head of State recalled co-operation with the West during the pre-sanctions times ‘up to the point when a readmission agreement was signed’, “If they run there from us, through us, we take them back. We were liaising with them. They were building facilities where we could accommodate these people. Then they abandoned all this, saying that ‘we don’t need it’. Okay, you don’t this. Do I need this? Should I create a ‘distribution centre’ in Belarus on this piece of land? I don’t need that either. I talked about this two or three years ago, when they started escalating with these sanctions against Belarus and Russia. We will not hold them back.”
According to Aleksandr Lukashenko, the situation was aggravated by the Ukrainian factor, “Who will go through the front to this vaunted Germany? Nobody. That’s how it turned out that everything converged on Belarus along the land border. I said it bluntly: we’re not going to catch them here. Our job is to ensure the safety of our people.”
At the same time, the President drew attention to the fact that Belarusian citizens do not feel the aggravation of the migration crisis, “I don’t think you’ve noticed much that someone is interfering with our lives, including those poor refugees with children fleeing from the East.”
The Head of State summarised, “Do you remember this epic with refugees, when they were watered in winter by the vaunted democrats, when they were beaten, and now they are just being killed there and thrown to our border. We are already tired of demonstrating all these facts. Where is European democracy? Where are these Americans who stand up for human rights? Why are people being killed? Why are children and women being killed? They’re coming to you. You’ve ruined their homes. You have invited them there, they’re coming. Why are you killing them? The God will ask. If there is one, he sees it.”
The President pointed out a key circumstance, “Most important is that I do not intend to give orders to border guards, military and other civilians to protect the European Union on the Belarusian-Polish border. You’ve put a noose around our neck, strangle us and force us to protect you from these poor people.”
At the same time, the Western neighbours’ own protective measures don’t give any results, “Well, you’ve built a fence. I warned that this would not deter these migrants. They climb over this fence from above within a few minutes. Yesterday the Polish leadership said that they [migrants] push fence posts with a jack and enter in crowds. They’re being killed there. They’re being shot at there. That’s the whole migration. It will not be possible to use migration flows against us. We, our journalists, must show this truth about migration flows even more widely.”
