EU to tighten visa rules for Belarus officials over migrants
The European Union will tighten visa rules for Belarusian state officials, as a result of the stalled efforts to agree a brand new EU migration system to change the one which failed amid a 2015-16 spike in Mediterranean immigration.
The EU accuses President Alexander Lukashenko of orchestrating a pointy rise in migrant arrivals throughout the Belarus border with bloc members Poland, Lithuania and Latvia.
The enhance occurred after the 27-nation union slapped sanctions on Minsk over human rights abuses and an election extensively deemed rigged.
Europe’s migration commissioner stated on Wednesday, in retaliation for what she known as Minsk’s aggressive effort to destabilise the bloc by pushing in irregular migrants.
The bloc’s Home Affairs Commissioner Ylva Johansson said, “We have an aggressive regime, Lukashenko, that is actually pushing migrants to the European border to destabilise the European Union.
“This is an act of aggression.”
Johansson stressed that information from EU legislation enforcement company Europol exhibits 90% of these arriving irregularly within the bloc have used individuals smugglers alongside the best way.
she proposed to EU states that they step up their struggle towards such traffickers.
“What we are seeing now is a desperate Lukashenko.
“This is a regime that has denied its own people free and fair elections. This is a regime that is putting political opposition in jail.
“This is a regime that has hijacked a passenger flight and now is using innocent people in an act of aggression. This is not a regime we should cooperate with.”
Lukashenko has blamed the West for what he stated was a looming humanitarian disaster this winter on the Belarusian-Polish border.
The EU and Belarus enacted a brand new visa facilitation deal in July final yr to ease procedures and cut back prices for Belarusians prepared to go to the bloc briefly.
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Kamila/Reuters
