Russian Foreign Ministry addresses West to accept refugees from Belarusian-Polish border
Western countries should bear responsibility for destabilisation of the situation in the Middle East and North Africa by accepting refugees – as stated by the Russian Foreign Ministry's Commissioner for Human Rights, Democracy and the Rule of Law, the Deputy Director of the Department for Humanitarian Co-operation and Human Rights, Grigory Lukyantsev, in an interview with RIA Novosti while commenting on the situation on the Belarusian-Polish border
"We must not forget about the root causes of this crisis and why it developed. The key cause is interference in the relevant processes in the Middle East and North Africa, destabilisation of the political situation and the political regime, intervention into internal affairs, destabilisation of the region. As a result, this naturally led to the emergence of migration flows. These people are trying to get to the countries which have taken a hand in destabilising the situation. Therefore, when certain calls for sharing the ‘burden’ and responsibility are voiced, those who created this situation should primarily be responsible for resolving this problem," Mr. Lukyantsev said.
The diplomat added that some of the refugees return to their home countries, including Iraq, while others plan to achieve their goal and enter the EU. They usually name Germany as their ultimate destination since conditions there are quite comfortable for those seeking asylum.
According to Mr. Lukyantsev, Germany could have accepted refugees as they comprise only a small group of people. However, Poland will not do this.
“It is not about a large-scale, gigantic migration crisis if we look at figures since migration flows and the number of people staying on the border of Belarus and Poland are incomparable with what was happening several years ago when the migration crisis was at its peak. At the same time, we can say that there is no unity of positions within the European Union itself. Germany makes statements that they would be ready to accept these persons, and the country does not refuse these words. In turn, Poland's position is exactly the opposite. This has actually become an insurmountable obstacle on the way [of refugees to the European Union – RIA Novosti’s remark],” Mr. Lukyantsev stressed.
Earlier, the European Court of Human Rights ruled that refugees in Poland cannot be sent back to Belarus if they already stay on the Polish territory.
