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Security forces on the border between Poland and Belarus
Photo: LEONID SHCHEGLOV / AFP
New EU sanctions are already in the room.
But now Federal Interior Minister Horst Seehofer has also called for very specific support from the European Union in overcoming the crisis on the Polish-Belarusian border.
"We have to help the Polish government secure the external border," said the CSU politician of the "Bild" newspaper.
»That would actually be the job of the EU Commission.
I now appeal to them to take action. «Poland and Germany could not cope with the situation alone, said Seehofer.
Migrants who want to enter the EU via Poland have gathered at the border crossings.
Poland accuses the Belarusian leadership of preparing a "great provocation".
On Monday evening it became known that Poland would close the Kuznica border crossing to Belarus because of the crowds.
Large groups of migrants tried to cross the border by force, said the Polish border guard on Monday evening on Twitter.
The border traffic will be interrupted on Tuesday from 7 a.m.
The Polish authorities believe that hundreds of people will try to break through the border.
The Polish government spokesman said there are currently 3,000 to 4,000 people near the Polish border.
Over ten thousand migrants in Belarus are hoping to get into the European Union.
Many of them come from crisis countries such as Afghanistan and Syria.
Seehofer welcomed the construction of a border wall.
»I also say that we need the structural security of the borders.
We have to publicly support the Poles, «demanded Seehofer.
The Polish government cannot be criticized for protecting the EU's external border with permissible means.
The Interior Minister said that all EU countries had to stand together because Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko, with the support of Russian President Vladimir Putin, was using human destinies to destabilize the West.
Pictures of refugees and fleeing children at the border are "deliberately created and used" by the government in Minsk, continues Seehofer.
Turkey is also coming into focus
The chairman of the conservative party group in the European Parliament EPP Manfred Weber made a similar statement.
"Stricter sanctions against Lukashenko and those around him are necessary," he told the "Bild".
The deputy head of the CSU also criticized Turkey: "If the Turkish President tries to blackmail the EU with numerous migrant flights from Turkey to Belarus, an unequivocal answer is needed." Take up government.
On Monday, according to the Polish authorities, larger groups of migrants on the Belarusian side near Kuznica tried in vain to break through the border.
Poland's border guards reported in the evening that the migrants had set up camp there.
“We withstood the first wave and wait to see what happens in a while when night falls.
We are well prepared, ”said a spokesman for the authorities of the Polish agency PAP.
It is not known what the Belarusian security forces wanted to surprise the Poles with.
Clear announcement from Minsk
The government in Warsaw and the EU accuse Lukashenko of having people flown in from crisis regions in order to then smuggle them into the EU.
In response to sanctions against his country, he had declared that he would no longer stop people on their way to a better life in the "cozy West".
There have already been several migrant deaths in the border region.
The EU states Poland and Lithuania have reported thousands of border crossings in the past few months.
Germany is considered a main destination for migrants.
EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen spoke out on Monday evening for additional sanctions against Belarus.
Minsk must stop the "cynical instrumentalization of migrants," said von der Leyen: "I call on the member states to approve the extended sanctions regime against the Belarusian authorities responsible for this hybrid attack."
jok / Reuters