EU should act against the countries using immigrants as weapons, demands Austrian Foreign Minister

Brussels: – The countries Turkey, Belarus and Afghanistan are using immigrants as a weapon. The Austrian Foreign Minister strongly demanded that the European Union (EU) take action against these countries. A meeting of the Foreign Ministers of the EU member countries is being held in Brussels, and Austrian Foreign Minister Alexander Schallenberg has made this statement. Turkey has been consistently threatening to push immigrants into the European countries, and the immigrant influx is rising even from Belarus since the last few weeks. The demand of the Austrian Foreign Minister becomes significant against this background.

Austrian Foreign Minister Alexander Schallenberg demanded, ‘Turkey, Belarus and Afghanistan are trying to use immigrants as a weapon against the EU. The EU should take further steps keeping this in mind. The Union and the European Commission need to wake up on this issue. The Union and the concerned agencies should initiate moves to take actions on the economic, diplomatic and trade levels.’

The Austrian Foreign Minister also warned that other countries are trying to pressurise the EU to use immigrants as a weapon, which cannot be tolerated. The Afghan government had appealed that the EU should stop expelling Afghan immigrants for a few months. The Afghan government had argued that the situation is not conducive in Afghanistan because of the increasing Taliban attacks and the Coronavirus pandemic.

Before that, information has been received that Belarus is pushing a large number of immigrants into Lithuania, a member of the EU. It has been exposed that more than 800 immigrants have attempted to enter Lithuania, from Belarus, in the first week of July. These include immigrants from the African and Gulf countries. In 2020, only 81 immigrants had come into Lithuania. Taking this into account, the Lithuanian government is alleging that Belarus is knowingly pushing immigrants into Lithuania.

The Lithuanian government has pointed to the increasing number of flights from Baghdad and Istanbul to Minsk, the capital of Belarus. At the same time, it has also been alleged that Russia and Belarus are assisting the criminal gangs involved in human trafficking. Lithuania has started erecting new fencing on the border in an attempt to stop the influx and has also deployed additional security personnel on the border. Lithuania claimed that Belarus is using the immigrant influx in retaliation for the sanctions imposed by the EU against Belarus.

In the past, Turkish President Recep Erdogan had repeatedly threatened to release immigrants into Europe to pressure the EU. Incidents of Turkey releasing thousands of immigrants in the direction of Greece were followed by the tension that had developed between Turkey and Greece last year. Austrian Chancellor Sebastian Kurz had made open allegations against Turkey over this issue. Against this background, the demand made by the Austrian Foreign Minister becomes significant.