EU's Borrell vows sanctions on Belarus in coming days over migrant crisis

The European Union will impose new sanctions on persons and entities in Belarus in the coming days amid the escalating crisis over migrants stranded on Poland's border, the bloc's top diplomat Josep Borrell has said.

EU foreign ministers have reached a political agreement on this matter, Borrell said in Brussels on after their Monday meeting.

The measures will be finalised in the coming days, he added.

Thousands of migrants, brought in by the Belarusian regime, camp in the border areas with the intention of getting into Poland, and then further into the European Union. The bloc accuses Belarus of deliberately bringing people to Eastern Europe and then smuggling them to the West.

Borrell said that as the bloc continues to observe hybrid aggression for which the (Belarus strongman Alexander - PAP) Lukashenko's regime is responsible it will extend the scope of sanctions on the country.

He said that the new, fifth package of sanctions agreed by EU foreign ministers would target more individuals involved in organising flights with people from several countries to Belarus and taking them from there to the EU border.

Poland, Lithuania and Latvia have been tackling an escalating migration crisis at their borders with Belarus in recent months, accusing Minsk's Alexander Lukashenko regime of engineering the crisis to destabilise the EU in retaliation for sanctions imposed by Brussels.