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Merkel urges Putin to act on Belarus

CHANCELLOR Angela Merkel has asked Russian president Vladimir Putin to intervene with Belarus over the migrant situation on that country’s border with Poland.

The chancellor’s office said Merkel spoke with Putin by phone and “underlined the fact that the instrumentalisation of migrants against the European Union by the Belarusian regime is inhuman and completely unacceptable. She asked the Russian president to exert his influence on the regime in Minsk”.

Russia is a close ally of the government in Belarus. Germany is a favoured destination for migrants who arrive in the European Union.

The read-out of the call released by the Kremlin said Putin “proposed to establish a discussion of the problems that have arisen in direct contacts of representatives of the EU member states with Minsk”. It also said that Putin and Merkel “agreed to continue the conversation on the issue”.

Polish authorities said on

Wednesday that groups of migrants again tried to push into Poland from neighbouring Belarus.

Meanwhile, a European Union leader was expected in Warsaw to show support for the EU member country facing migration pressure and a humanitarian crisis on a border that also forms the eastern edge of the EU.

Poland’s Defence Ministry and local police reported that multiple groups of migrants tried to enter the country late on Tuesday and early Wednesday but that all the people who made it were detained.

Hundreds of migrants have been camping since Monday on the Belarus side of the border, near the village of Kuznica.