WARSAW – Poland accused Belarus on Friday of trucking hundreds of migrants back to the border and pushing them to attempt to cross illegally, only hours after clearing camps at the frontier.
The accusation by Poland made clear that an apparent change of tack this week by Minsk had yet to resolve the border crisis, which has spiralled into a major East-West confrontation, Reuters reported.
European governments accuse Belarus of flying in thousands of people from the Middle East and pushing them to attempt to cross the border illegally. Around 10 migrants are believed to have died in the freezing woods.
Belarus denies fomenting the crisis deliberately.
Belarus authorities cleared the main camps on Thursday where thousands of people had been huddling by the Polish border. Hundreds of Iraqis were also sent home on the first repatriation flight from Minsk in months.
But Polish Border Guard spokesperson Anna Michalska said that by Thursday evening Belarus authorities were already trucking hundreds of migrants back and forcing them to try to cross in darkness.
“(The Belarusians) were bringing more migrants to the place where there was a forced attempt to cross,” she said. “At the beginning there were 100 people, but then the Belarusian side brought more people in trucks. Then there were 500 people.”
Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko discussed the crisis on Friday by telephone with Russian President Vladimir Putin. They stressed the importance of cooperation between Belarus and the EU, said the Kremlin, which has long said Europe must resolve the crisis directly with Minsk.
