President Biden says Poland-Belarus refugee crisis is ‘of great concern’

U.S. President Joe Biden has expressed concern about the situation on the Polish-Belarusian border, where thousands of migrants are sheltering in freezing conditions on the Belarus side hoping to cross into the European Union.

“We think it’s a great concern. We communicated our concern to Russia, we communicated our concern to Belarus,” Biden told reporters on November 12 as he departed the White House for a weekend at the Camp David presidential retreat. “We think it’s a problem.”

The EU has accused Belarus President Lukashenko of deliberately encouraging the flow of migrants by air to Minsk and then sending them on under guard to his country’s borders with Poland, Lithuania and Latvia, where thousands are now stranded in dire conditions.

It has been reported by local sources that at least seven migrants have died in the freezing weather in forests along the border, as Belarus refuses to accept them back after encouraging them to attempt to enter Poland.

Polish President Andrzej Duda said this week, “The Belarusian regime is attacking the Polish border, the EU, in an unparalleled manner.”