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Belarus stands for cooperation with western neighbors against illegal migration

Yuri Ambrazevich and Amy Pope. Photo courtesy of Belarus' Ministry of Foreign Affairs

MINSK, 14 June (BelTA) - Belarus is in favor of cooperation with its western neighbors in combating illegal migration, Belarusian Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Yuri Ambrazevich said as he met with Deputy Director General for Management and Reform of the International Organization for Migration (IOM) Amy Pope in Geneva, BelTA learned from the press service of the Belarusian Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

The parties discussed a wide range of cooperation issues and separately dwelt on the fight against human trafficking. An agreement was reached on further interaction on anti-trafficking issues.

“There was a convergence of views on the impact of migration and mobility on the sustainable economic development of states. Yuri Ambrazevich informed the IOM leadership about the position of Belarus on the current status of the movement of illegal migrants on the Belarusian territory in the direction of Western Europe. He expressed concern about the potential escalation of the problem in summer and the absence of any interaction between Poland, Lithuania and Latvia and the government of Belarus on the issue which cannot be solved by unilateral efforts of Minsk alone,” the ministry’s press service said.

In Geneva, the Belarusian deputy minister of foreign affairs also met with Director-General of the United Nations Office at Geneva, Secretary General of the Conference on Disarmament and Personal Representative of the UN Secretary-General Tatyana Valovaya. The parties reaffirmed their belief in the need to counter the processes of degradation of the international security system through the strengthening of multilateral institutions and negotiating platforms.

“The parties discussed the reasons for the emergence of the current international security crisis and ways out of it, including in the context of the situation in Ukraine. The Belarusian diplomat stressed the need to find peaceful ways to resolve this conflict,” the ministry said.

At the meetings in Geneva, Yuri Ambrazevich conveyed to the leadership of the UN, IOM (he also did this earlier in respect to the leadership of the ICRC, UNHCR and UNHCHR) the concerns about the artificial politicization by some foreign states and destructive public organizations in these countries of the fulfillment by Belarus of its international obligations, in particular in the field of international humanitarian law. “Special attention of the parties was drawn to the growing politicization of the topic of children on the international agenda, including the Belarusian practice of admitting children from foreign countries to summer recuperation camps in Belarus. He urged the UN to be guided exclusively by first-hand information in its work and pointed to the openness of the Belarusian government in this matter,” the Belarusian ministry of foreign affairs added.

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