The European Union's top diplomat has called on countries neighboring Afghanistan to help prevent what he described as the abuse of migrants for political goals by the Belarusian authorities.
The request by the EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell came on Monday (November 22) when he and Commissioner for International Partnerships Jutta Urpilainen met the foreign ministers of Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan as well as Turkmenistan's deputy foreign minister in the Tajik capital, Dushanbe.
"I updated ministers on the situation on the borders of the European Union with Belarus and I've requested their support in preventing this instrumentalisation of human beings at the risk of their life: cheating people, convincing them that there is a way to Europe through a flight to Minsk," Borrell said after the meeting.
The EU also presented to the former Soviet republics its €1 billion plan to support both Afghanistan and its neighbors in areas from basic humanitarian help to migration management.
Following the takeover of Kabul by the militant-Islamist Taliban on August 15, thousands of Afghans have been facing repressions and mortal danger in their home country. According to a recent report by the German Foreign Ministry, safety and security for the Afghan population has declined dramatically.
Read more: Increasing numbers engage smugglers to flee Afghanistan
Afghan support package
While Urpilainen said at the same meeting in Dushanbe that almost half of the EU's €1 billion Afghan support package is in fact earmarked for neighboring countries, she did not say whether the EU expected them to host any refugees in return -- something that local governments have so far expressed little willingness to do, according to news agency Reuters.
In a joint communication, participants of the meeting acknowledged a need to boost cooperation on preventing irregular movements of people and countering migrant smuggling. Moreover, they said they looked forward to intensifying EU-Central Asia cooperation in managing borders.
Read more: Afghans In Iran -- thousands more arrive every day amid continuing deportations
Is Belarus eyeing Afghan migrants as border pawns?
The EU accuses Belarus of flying in thousands of people from the Middle East and pushing them to cross into the bloc via Poland, Lithuania and Latvia in retaliation for EU sanctions imposed on Belarus over authoritarian ruler Alexander Lukashenko's crushing of protests against his disputed re-election last year.
On Sunday (November 21), Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki said there could still be more migrants trying to cross into the European Union from Belarus, highlighting that this time the influx might likely be coming from Afghanistan and Uzbekistan.
"There is a threat of an even more difficult scenario," Morawiecki said. "There will most probably be an attempt at using the crisis in Afghanistan as a new act in the migration crisis, putting to use the remorse of the West related to the disorderly pullout from Afghanistan."
With Reuters