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Border between Belarus and Poland
Photo: Maxim Guchek / dpa
Thousands of migrants have been waiting at the Belarusian-Polish border for days.
The Executive Chancellor Angela Merkel (CDU) sought talks with both heads of government on Wednesday.
According to a spokesman, Merkel telephoned Poland's Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki that it was about the "close German-Polish coordination on the worrying situation at the border."
Merkel underlined the "full German solidarity with Poland".
Merkel also called the Belarusian ruler Alexander Lukashenko for the second time within three days.
According to Merkel's spokesman, she asked Lukashenko to allow aid from the EU and the United Nations.
For the people affected, it is about humanitarian supplies and opportunities to return to their home countries.
The EU has announced aid deliveries for migrants stuck in Belarus.
In a first step, food, blankets and other goods worth 700,000 euros are to be brought to the region on the border with Poland, said EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, according to information from the Reuters news agency.
"We are ready to do more," she added.
Frontex wants to support repatriation
The head of the EU border protection agency Frontex, Fabrice Leggeri, announced support for the repatriation of up to 1,700 Iraqi migrants. Frontex is working with the Polish authorities to do this, he told the AFP news agency. Flights are to be chartered for this in the coming weeks. Federal Interior Minister Horst Seehofer (CSU) will travel to Poland on Thursday for talks about the refugee conflict.
Traveling from the refugees' region of origin to Belarus has meanwhile become even more difficult. The Lebanese government announced that only people with a residence permit for Belarus could now fly into the country from Beirut. "Many Arab and foreign passengers" recently traveled to Belarus on direct flights operated by the Belarusian airline Belavia or via transfer connections from Lebanon, according to the General Directorate for Civil Aviation. That is the end of it now.
Belavia had previously imposed a flight ban on the route from Dubai to Belarus for people from Syria, Iraq, Afghanistan and Yemen at the request of the United Arab Emirates.
The private Syrian airline Cham Wings also stopped its flights to Minsk, Turkey and Iraq restricted air traffic with Belarus.
The EU had previously increased the pressure on the countries.
ime / dpa / AFP / Reuters