Poland: Belarus eyes using Afghan migrants as border pawns

Poland's prime minister has warned that migrant pressures on the European Union's border with Belarus could continue, this time with people fleeing from Afghanistan and Uzbekistan

VILNIUS, Lithuania -- Poland’s leader on Sunday warned against more possible migrant pressures on the European Union’s border with Belarus, this time coming from Afghanistan and Uzbekistan.

Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki spoke in Vilnius following talks with Lithuanian Prime Minister Ingrida Simonyte about ways of solving the “very difficult situation” at the borders of EU members with Belarus. He was on a one-day tour of meetings with the prime ministers of EU members Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia, which have also been hit by the migrant pressures.

The EU says the new surge of migrants on its eastern borders has been orchestrated by the leader of Belarus, President Alexander Lukashenko, in retaliation for EU sanctions placed on Belarus after a government crackdown on peaceful democracy protesters. It calls the move "a hybrid attack'' on the bloc. Belarus denies the charge.

Morawiecki said he expected the migrant pressures on Poland and the EU to continue, but now from a different region, claiming knowledge of “diplomatic” contacts that Belarus and Russia had with Uzbekistan and Afghanistan.