Greek PM accuses Belarus of weaponising migrant crisis

Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis accused Belarus of weaponsing the migrant crisis by encouraging migration flows into Lithuania.

Mitsotakis condemned Belarus for its action via his twitter account in the early hours of Tuesday morning, saying :

“The use of migrants as geopolitical pawns has failed in the past and it will fail once again. We stand with #Lithuania and strongly condemn the use of illegal migration to exert pressure on the EU. We will not be intimidated .”

The Prime Minister’s condemnation follows Friday’s state of emergency declaration by Lithuania due to an influx of migrants in the last few days from neighboring Belarus.

Earlier last year, Greece experienced a similar problem with Turkey sending thousands of illegal immigrants to the Evros border, which was later condemned by the EU, accusing the Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan of weaponising desperate refugees and immigrants for political leverage.

Since the Evros incident, Greece has reinforced the border with extra security personnel and surveillance systems.

READ: The Evros border “symbolises European values,” says EU Commission VP Schinas – Greek City Times