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Illegal migrants have the ‘right’ to enter the European Union

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The Communist dictator of Belarus, Alexander Lukashenko, told migrants gathered at the Polish border that his government would do everything it could to help them achieve their “dream” of joining the EU, which he said they has the “right” to do.

In a speech on Friday in front of a group of migrants – many of whom were allegedly tricked by the regime in Belarus into believing they would be given free passage to Germany – Lukashenko vowed to help them break into the EU.

“If anyone wants to go west – it’s your right. We will not try to catch you, beat you and stay behind barbed wire,” Lukashenko said according to Germany’s public broadcaster Deutsche Welle.

“We will work with you to achieve your dream,” the leader said to the applause of the migrants.

The comments are just the latest in a series of belligerent statements from the Belarussian strongman, in which Lukashenko almost admitted earlier this month that his forces are likely to help migrants trying to break the European border, but that he would do nothing about it.

Lukashenko has also claimed that he told the outgoing leader of Germany, Angela Merkel, that her country or the EU should immediately receive thousands of migrants, essentially blackmailing the bloc with the possibility of stranded migrants freezing to death at the border.

“Taking 2,000 is nothing. It’s not even a problem,” he claims to have told Merkel.

Poland and the EU have accused the Belarussian government of committing “hybrid warfare” against Poland, Lithuania and Latvia through trade in Middle Eastern migrants to Minsk and later to the border regions to destabilize the bloc.

It is widely believed that Lukashenko’s use of migrants comes in response to the EU sanctioning his regime earlier this year after it diverted a Ryanair plane to imprison a dissident journalist. It is expected that another round of sanctions will be imposed on Belarus in December, specifically targeting companies believed to be trading in migrants to the European border.

Tensions have resulted in violent clashes at the Polish border over the past month, with migrants seen throwing stones at Polish border officials who deployed water cannons to push the migrants back. At least seven Polish officers were injured in such a clash.

Hundreds of migrants tried to storm the Polish border again on Wednesday, throwing “branches and stones”, according to the Polish government.

Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki claimed that the use of migrants as peasants by Lukashenko is the “biggest attempt to destabilize Europe” since the Cold War.

“Poland will not give in to blackmail and will do everything in its power to stop the evil that threatens Europe,” the Polish leader said defiantly.

Follow Kurt Zindulka on Twitter here @KurtZindulka


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