Members of European parliament Nikolaj Villumsen (left) and Andreas Schieder (right). Photo: Rudaw
STRASBOURG, France - The European Union has a responsibility to guarantee the right to claim asylum, a member of the European parliament told Rudaw as thousands of migrants remain embroiled in a crisis along Belarus' western borders.
"I think that there is a humanitarian crisis. We see that people are dying. It is freezing cold and even families with small children are being met with violence from the Lukashenko side, but unfortunately also from the Polish side of the border," said Danish representative of the Left group in the European Parliament Nikolaj Villumsen on Thursday, referring to Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko.
Thousands of migrants, mostly from the Kurdistan Region of Iraq, have been stuck on the Belarusian borders with Poland, Lituania, and Latvia in recent months.
Hundreds returned to Erbil early Saturday morning on the fourth repatriation flight organized by both the Kurdish and Iraqi governments. A fifth flight is scheduled to land later in the day.
"We have an unacceptable situation where the EU should live up to its responsibility to human rights and secure the right to seek asylum, and on the other hand put pressure on the Lukashenko regime through targeted sanctions," the parliamentarian told Rudaw. European countries, as well as Iraq and the Kurdistan Region, have accused Lukashenko of exploiting the migrants in a political battle of the wills with the European Union.
Andreas Schieder, a member of the Group of the Progressive Alliance of Socialists and Democrats in the European Parliament from Denmark, also criticized the treatment of migrants at the border.
"It's completely unacceptable that humans are used as some kind of weapon," he said.
At least 8,000 Kurds have traveled to Belarus with the help of Kurdish smugglers, attempting to gain access to western Europe, which has fortified itself against the wave of migration and accused Minsk of luring desperate migrants to the border in protest of sanctions.
The migrants, stuck on the frontier between Polish and Belarusian forces, were fenced in with no food or water and fearing for their lives as temperatures drop. They have also reported being beaten by border guards and attacked by dogs.
At least 13 people have died on the Belarus-Poland border.
This interview was conducted in Strasbourg on November 25, 2021.
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