Polish leader seeks aid for border crisis

Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki will hold a series of talks around Europe on the surge of migrants creating pressure on the European Union’s border with Belarus, a crisis that he expects will continue.

Morawiecki said he would meet Sunday with his counterparts from EU members Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia, which have also been hit by the migrant pressure. Then he will travel to Europe for further consultations.

Morawiecki said the crisis with Belarus is a “very serious geopolitical situation” as many migrants from the Mideast still remain in Belarus and keep trying to force their way into EU member Poland. On Friday night, some migrants threw stones and used tear gas against Polish border guards and police, according to Poland’s Border Guard.

“This is why I set out on a journey to some European countries, to talk about the international crisis provoked by the actions of (Belarusian President) Alexander Lukashenko,” Morawiecki said Saturday. “Unfortunately, there are numerous signs suggesting that this geopolitical crisis will be continued for many months, even years.”

The European Union has accused Lukashenko of using the migrants as pawns to destabilize the bloc in retaliation for its sanctions on his authoritarian regime. Belarus denies creating the crisis. A few hundred people marched Saturday in Warsaw in support of the migrants. Their banners read “We Welcome the Refugees, NO to Racism,” and “Enough of Cruelty, Accept the Refugees.”

Maxim Guchek / BelTA Migrants line up for food aid at a logistics center near Grodno, Belarus, along the border with Poland. The European Union has accused the nation of encouraging the flow of migrants.