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Belarus rejects Polish aid for migrants on border: PM

25.08.2021 13:30
Belarus has refused to let in a Polish convoy with humanitarian aid for migrants, Poland's Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki said on Wednesday.
Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki.
Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki.Photo: PAP/Artur Reszko

“To our surprise, there has been a complete refusal to accept our humanitarian support," Morawiecki told a press conference.

He added that the aid was intended for "people who are on Belarusian territory, so Belarus is fully responsible for them."

“Our shipment has been waiting at the border for over a day now," Morawiecki said.

"We are still hoping that the Belarusians will come to their senses and help those people," he told reporters.

Poland has offered humanitarian aid—including "tents, beds, sleeping bags, blankets, pajamas, beddings and personal protective equipment, as well as food and medicines"—to migrants in Belarus amid a crisis on that country's border with the European Union, according to the foreign ministry in Warsaw.

The Polish foreign ministry said in a statement in English on Monday: “If the Belarusian side consents, the convoy sent by the Government Agency for Strategic Reserves will be scheduled to enter the territory of Belarus at the nearest border crossing and will reach the migrants’ location by the shortest route.”

The prime ministers of Poland, Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia said this week that the ongoing migrant crisis on the EU's border with Belarus "has been planned and systemically organized by the regime of Alexander Lukashenko."

That joint statement by Poland's Mateusz Morawiecki, Lithuania's Ingrida Šimonytė, Latvia's Arturs Krišjānis Kariņš and Estonia's Kaja Kallas was released after Poland and the Baltic states last week accused Lukashenko's regime of intentionally pushing thousands of migrants over the EU's eastern border in retaliation for EU sanctions.

(jh/gs)

Source: PAP