MINSK, 28 January (BelTA) – In his annual Address to Belarusian People and the National Assembly on 28 January Belarusian President Aleksandr Lukashenko gave his take on the reasons for the migrant crisis in Europe, BelTA has learned.
“The provocation of a series of artificial crises is a characteristic feature of modern hybrid attacks. The situation with migrants at our western border is another test of strength. There was also a more petty provocation with the jet earlier, you know how it ended. If you look at it on a global scale, the so-called great migration of peoples is nothing but a boomerang effect provoked by the barbaric actions of Western politicians in the East. People fled from wars, hunger and devastation in pursuit of a better future for their children. Let's recall the exodus of refugees to Europe in 2015. Now they go through Turkey, Greece, Italy, the Balkans, drown in the Mediterranean Sea and the English Channel. The West gave millions of people false hope but later decided to fence themselves off to prevent those who wanted to reunite with their families from entering Europe. This cynicism ruined so many lives,” Aleksandr Lukashenko noted.
The head of state believes that no fences would be able to hold back huge flows of migrants, since the problem remains fundamentally unresolved. “Belarus is just a transit point in migration routes,” he noted.
“The migrant crisis has exposed the unwillingness of our western neighbors to come to an agreement, to listen to sound arguments. Their cruelty surpassed the barbarism of the Middle Ages. Their declared priority of human rights turned out to be just bombastic rhetoric. Belarusians, on the contrary, have demonstrated real humanism to the world. They provided migrants with shelter and food and did not let them freeze. Our border guards showed restraint and did not succumb to provocations. We are aware of the specifics of the hybrid impact and we understand that this incident is not the last one,” Aleksandr Lukashenko said.
The head of state emphasized that this situation has exposed the need to build a legal and humanitarian basis for resolving such crises. “This is a tragedy for the peoples of the East, a test for Western society and its values, at least declared values, a test of humanity,” he said.
