EU chief diplomat addresses EP on Polish migrant crisis
Josep Borrell, the EU high representative for foreign affairs and security policy, told a debate at the European Parliament on Wednesday that the bloc is dealing with a potential new migration route due to the migrant crisis on the Polish-Belarusian border.
Poland, Lithuania and Latvia have come under increasing migratory pressure on their borders with Belarus in recent months due to what they claim is a "hybrid war" being waged by the Belarusian state aimed at destabilising the EU in retaliation for sanctions.
Addressing the European Parliament, Borrell said the Belarusian government was using people as a tool to achieve political ends and that the migrant crisis on the EU's external borders represented a possible new migration route into the EU.
He said pictures of the situation were shocking and that it might escalate. He also informed the house that European Commission Vice-President Margaritas Schinas would discuss the issue with government officials of Iraq and Turkey as well as other countries.
