Events
Belarusian MFA outlines contrasting approaches to migrants in Belarus and EU
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MINSK, 18 August (BelTA) - Europe has created the conditions that stimulate the influx of migration, Belarusian Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Igor Sekreta said in an interview with the German publication NachDenkSeiten, BelTA has learned.
Speaking about the causes of illegal migration in the European Union, Igor Sekreta stated that Europe itself has created this ‘magnet”.
“Everyone knows very well that Germany has a very generous welfare system. I think that this is, generally speaking, even unfair to the Germans themselves. But that is your choice. In my opinion, keeping people who find themselves in a difficult situation permanently on social welfare at the expense of your own citizens’ taxes is wrong. But that is only my opinion. It is your business. You are the ones who decide which policies work for you,” the diplomat said.
At the same time, he noted that, judging by reports in the German press, more and more residents of Germany are speaking out against this policy. “They openly say: ‘We do not want to pay for those who do not want to work.’ I absolutely agree with them,” the deputy minister added.
In Belarus, there is a completely different approach, Igor Sekreta pointed out. “If you want to have equal rights with Belarusians, you must work like a Belarusian. You must become one of us: learn the language, obey the laws, earn money, and pay taxes. Then you will be treated as one of our own. That is precisely why we do not attract a huge flow of migrants. They know that they will have to work here. Germany, Sweden, or other Scandinavian countries have created the conditions that literally stimulate this influx,” the deputy minister emphasized.
Commenting on the attempts of migrants to enter the EU through Belarus, Igor Sekreta noted that when these people arrive in Belarus, there are no issues with them. They arrive completely legally, as a rule, from Russia, with Russian visas. They have passports, tickets, and many have study contracts.
“For us, they are not illegal migrants but legal tourists. They spend money here, buy food, stay in our hotels, and are practically no different from ordinary travelers. But at some point, they decide to cross the border with the European Union. How can they do that legally? Polish and Lithuanian border guards do not let them through official checkpoints and do not allow them to apply for asylum. As a result, people use the ‘green border’ and cross where there are no border patrols. In this, they are actively assisted by the same Lithuanians and Poles, who make good money from it. They transport migrants in their cars further on to Germany, where inside the Schengen zone there are no longer any borders,’ the diplomat said.
According to him, it is citizens of Lithuania and Poland who are caught smuggling people most often. “I could cite many examples where our border guards and medics literally saved the lives of foreign nationals who had been brutally beaten on the other side of the border and thrown back to us to die. I am not sure that Polish humanitarian organizations record such cases. Those who manage to survive report similar scenarios of how they were treated by people in uniform on the territory of the countries neighboring Belarus: the refugees are detained, their money and personal belongings are taken away, mobile phones are smashed, and documents are destroyed. Then people are placed in minibuses, where they are beaten, sometimes threatened with weapons. After that, the broken and beaten people are pushed back into Belarus through an animal gate under threat of more violence,” Igor Sekreta said.
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