Following calls from Lithuania and Poland for the EU to help finance building a fence along their borders with Belarus, German minister has called this a legitimate wish, Belgian news portal EurActiv reports.
The initiative came earlier in October, as Poland set out to erect an EUR 350 million wall on its border with Belarus as an obstacle to the current migration flow. The EU blames the Belarusian authorities of facilitating migration from the Middle East and Africa via Belarus and sending people into the bloc on foot in retaliation for sanctions imposed over a crackdown on the opposition.
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Responding to the question, whether Poland’s border wall was necessary, Germany’s Interior Minister Horst Seehofer evaluated that protecting frontiers was justifiable. «It is legitimate for us to protect the external border in such a way that undetected border crossings are prevented,» the conservative politician said to the Bild am Sonntag newspaper released on Sunday, October 24.
Germany is often the destination for the migration route. The country’s Federal Interior Ministry has estimated that some 5,700 people have travelled over the border between Germany and Poland without an entry permit since the start of 2021, EurActiv reports.
Germany considers Lithuanian-Polish call EU to fund border wall justifiable
