MINSK, 20 July (BelTA) - Accusing Belarus of organizing migrant smuggling into Lithuania is a vivid example of political slander and unfounded allegations, Chairman of the Standing Commission on International Affairs of the House of Representatives Andrei Savinykh told reporters, BelTA has learned.
Andrei Savinykh commented on the media campaign against Belarus of organizing migrant trafficking and the joint statement on Belarus by the international affairs committees of the parliaments of the UK, Germany, Ireland, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, the USA, the Czech Republic, Ukraine, France and Estonia. “Accusing Belarus of organizing migrant smuggling into Lithuania is a vivid example of political slander and unfounded allegations . These statements testify to the phenomenal incompetence and apparent political impotence of their authors. Once again we emphasize the futility of the campaign of lies and disinformation against our country,” Andrei Savinykh said.
According to him, they have confused two concepts. “The migrant crisis in Europe began at least 2 or 3 years ago. Currently, tens of thousands of people cross the Mediterranean Sea, moving through Turkey to Greece and further to the countries of Western Europe. This flow is huge. The West collectively destroyed Syria, Afghanistan, Iraq. This has resulted in a global humanitarian crisis. The attempts to make Belarus guilty of these trends are at least ridiculous,” the MP said.
"For many years, the border with Belarus has been a safe border for the European Union. In fact, we incurred enormous costs to protect the border, including from the flow of illegal migration. But today we find ourselves in a difficult situation, the resources that we can allocate for these purposes have been significantly reduced. Today we are forced to pay more attention to the border with Ukraine to prevent the attempts to smuggle goods in here. In a certain sense, the flow might have increased. But this is the problem of the European Union. It's time for them to wake up and start protecting their own borders in a normal way,” Andrei Savinykh added.
