Belarusian President Aleksandr Lukashenko on Monday accused Lithuania of killing migrants, following reports of another death at the eastern border of the European Union (EU), informs dpa. “In this migration crisis, the villains have gone so far as to kill people,” Lukashenko said during a meeting with representatives of the Belarusian Defense Ministry. Migrants were brought from the EU to the Belarusian border “dead or maybe half dead” and thrown there, President Lukashenko, 67, accused of appearing in military uniform.
The EU accuses Lukashenko, often labeled “Europe’s last dictator”, of deliberately causing migrants to fly from crisis areas such as Iraq and then to the Belarusian border with the EU. Migrants have also repeatedly complained that they have been assaulted by Belarusian security forces. Belarusian border police said Monday morning that a man had been found dead at the border with Lithuania, after another dead body was discovered late last week. The information could not be verified. The International Committee of the Red Cross recently reported more than ten deaths along the EU’s eastern border in the context of the current migration crisis.
Polish border police said Monday that a total of 92 migrants had tried to cross into Belarus from Poland in the past 24 hours.
Since the beginning of this crisis in the summer, thousands of migrants have gathered on the Belarusian-Polish border, spending all their savings or borrowing to try to escape the plight of their countries and reach Western Europe.
