Senior Lithuanian Diplomat Calls Refugees On Border With Belarus Economic Migrants

MOSCOW (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 10th November, 2021) Lithuanian Vice Minister of Foreign Affairs Mantas Adomenas said in an interview with the Echo of Moscow radio station on Wednesday that refugees stranded on the Belarusian border were economic migrants, not political refugees.

Some 2,000 refugees have been stranded at the Belarusian border with Poland since Monday. Minsk said that these are refugees from the middle east and Africa. As part of measures to prevent refugees from crossing over, the Polish authorities have deployed security forces to the border, adding to tensions.

"These people are economic migrants, we understand their motives ... They are coming from a region in Iraq that is both the most stable and the most economically prosperous, but they admit that they are simply looking for a better life in the EU, in Germany or in other Western European countries, so they are not refugees from the war zone," Adomenas said.

Brussels has repeatedly accused Minsk of using refugees for political purposes, as Belarusian authorities are believed to be providing undocumented migrants with visas on arrival and transporting them to EU borders to get back at the European Union for sanctions against Belarusian officials. Minsk has rejected the allegations, saying it can no longer suppress migration to neighboring countries due to lack of resources caused by Western sanctions against the country.