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WARSAW: Belarus’ exiled opposition chief Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya on Wednesday urged the worldwide neighborhood to cease a “humanitarian disaster” which she mentioned is being created by the Belarusian regime facilitating largescale migration into the European Union.
Hundreds of migrants from Syria, Iraq, Afghanistan and Africa have been lured to Belarus on vacationer visas and inspired to cross into Poland, Lithuania, and to a lesser extent Latvia — all three EU nations that border Belarus.
A number of lately died of exhaustion as they tried to get from Belarus to Poland throughout an space of forests and swamps.
Tsikhanouskaya warned that as winter approaches, she fears these deaths “will develop into dozens.”
“So I urge the United Nations and the world neighborhood to behave to cease the humanitarian disaster that is about to occur in the midst of Europe,” she advised a press convention in the course of the Warsaw Safety Discussion board.
Throughout her go to to Warsaw she additionally met with Polish President Andrzej Duda and different Polish leaders, who’ve been supportive of the efforts of the Belarusian opposition and given succor to individuals focused by the regime in Minsk.
Tsikhanouskaya was the primary opposition challenger to longtime authoritarian President Alexander Lukashenko in final yr’s disputed election.
She now lives in exile in Lithuania.
Poland has taken a troublesome method to securing its border, saying it should defend its nationwide safety within the face of a “hybrid warfare” assault by Lukashenko.
“It is revenge (towards) Poland and Lithuania for his or her assist of the Belarusian democratic motion,” Tsikhanouskaya mentioned.
She didn’t straight criticize Poland’s method, which has concerned denying migrants the correct to use for asylum and pushing some households with kids again throughout the border, in violation of worldwide regulation.
However she famous that “people who find themselves crossing the border aren’t responsible. They’re victims.”
She mentioned that there are nonetheless some 10,000 to fifteen,000 migrants now in Belarus hoping to make the crossing into the EU, and that the quantity was rising.
She didn’t specify the supply of the numbers she quoted.
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