German Federal Interior Minister Horst Seehofer has called on the European Commission to help Poland secure its border with Belarus and defended Polish authorities for not allowing large numbers of people from the Middle East illegally cross into EU member Poland via Belarus, British news portal The Guardian reports.
Horst Seehofer, the German Federal Minister of the Interior, Building and Community since 2018, accused Belarus and Russia of exploiting refugees and migrants in an attempt to destabilise the west, and said EU countries must stand together in the face of a «hybrid threat» posed by «politically organised migration». Polish security officers blocked hundreds of people from entering the country on Monday, November 9, after Belarusian authorities had escorted them to the border.
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«The Poles have reacted correctly so far,» Seehofer told the German newspaper Bild of Poland’s reinforcement of the border. «We cannot criticise them for securing the EU’s external border with admissible means. The Poles are fulfilling a very important service for the whole of Europe.»
According to him, EU countries «must stand together, because Lukashenko is using people’s fates with the support of Russian president Vladimir Putin to destabilise the west,» he said. «Poland or Germany can’t handle this alone. We must help the Polish government secure their external border. This would actually be the task of the European Commission. I’m now appealing to them to take action,» Seehofer noted as quoted by The Guardian.
Germany: «We cannot criticise them for securing EU’s external border»
