Lukashenko on business approaches to migrant issue
A mafia-like structure operates in the European Union and facilitates the transit of migrants. This statement was made by the President of Belarus yesterday in an interview with the Editor-in-Chief of Russia’s Natsionalnaya Oborona magazine and a military expert, Igor Korotchenko, BelTA reports
“People travel, go to the border. About 2,000 of them or maybe slightly more than that concentrated in various places – in Minsk, in forests yesterday. It was the first time like that. They were transported there. Certain people take care of their transit: they help migrants board aircraft, welcome them in Belarus, take them to the border, help them cross the border, and then Poles, Germans, Ukrainians welcome them over there. Everything in exchange for money,” Aleksandr Lukashenko said. The Head of State remarked that migrants pay for the transit services. “Poor people don't come. And if they are poor, they raise money for the travels. And we track this entire chain. People in Poland have already been caught and they even had to declare who they are. No Belarusians and only two Russians among them. And dozens of the transit facilitators that help migrants travel are Germans and primarily Poles, there are also Ukrainians and Lithuanians. In other words, a certain mafia-like structure enables transit. They have their own cells in Germany, France, and other countries. They call each other, tell migrants to come and promise they will be welcomed. And they look forward to the migrants' arrival. The migrants do not travel to an empty space. They travel specifically to the people waiting for them in Germany. Some have relatives, friends, and someone else. Everything is smoothly organised. And Belarus is just another stage of the journey. Absolutely not the key stage.”
At the same time, as the President stated, migrants travel not only via Belarus but via Ukraine as well, “But Ukraine is a friendly country [for the collective West], so they keep quiet for now. Belarus is not friendly, so it has to be slammed. Moreover, Putin stands behind Lukashenko's back and pushes him to the West all the time. This is how they describe it. This migration wave is Lukashenko's hybrid war that Putin supports [according to the collective West]. What does Putin have to do with it? What does Lukashenko have to do with it? You've bombed Afghanistan and beyond… People are travelling to you following your own call.”
As regards accusations on the side of the West that Belarus is letting migrants through the border, Aleksandr Lukashenko noted, “You've enforced sanctions against me, against Belarusians. You've started a hybrid war against Belarus. And do you, scumbags and madmen, want me to protect you, including from migrants?”
The President also mentioned that the EU violated the recently signed readmission agreement, “In line with the agreement they had to build facilities in Belarus for the people we are supposed to take as part of the readmission procedure. They enforced sanctions against us. They abandoned these plans and don't finance it. They don't build these so-called camps. They've violated the agreement and pulled out of it. Nothing can be got out of them as people say. I have nothing to do with it. If people run, they are free to run. How am I supposed to return them to Belarus and create enclaves here?”
Commenting on why Polish politicians and border guards are so cruel, Aleksandr Lukashenko said, “They have shown true worth. Why are you beating these people? They say it plainly: we don't go to Poland, we've been called to go to Germany, let us through. A Polish head recently said of 200 dead migrants. Not one, two, or three people! Why doesn't the world know about it? Why do human rights activists in Germany, France, the UK, the USA keep silent about it? Why do Poles prevent even reporters from going there? They've cordoned off the area and don't let anyone reach the border. All these images and videos came mainly from us. It is a well-organised process. And, let's say, if they want me to pay for the process and stop it out of my own pocket like I did in the past… Do you think I have money to spare? And then give me facts. If I finance [transit of migrants], prove it with facts.”
According to the President, our ordinary people, local residents help refugees with food, deliver water. At the same time, Aleksandr Lukashenko expressed concern that this confrontation at the border may lead to some critical phase, “It is the grounds for provocations. Any provocation can be arranged. We don't shoot over people's heads the way they do. Our helicopters don't fly over them [refugees]. They simply intimidate them. This is their face. They have always been like that.”
At the same time, Aleksandr Lukashenko added: what the West is doing now is a trifle compared to what they did against us in 1941, unleashing the Second World War.
