President Lukashenko: Belarus to no longer manage migrant crisis after Western sanctions

Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko has said his country stopped protecting Europe from migrants after Brussels began imposing sanctions on the country.

Western countries will need to handle the situation with illegal immigrants themselves, as they will no longer stay in Belarus, he added, Caliber.Az reports, citing Russian media.

"When they started imposing sanctions against Belarus, I told them: guys, I will no longer hold migrants here," Lukashenko said.

The Belarusian leader claimed that migrants are being killed in the West and their bodies are being dumped on Belarusian territory—there are already hundreds of them.

"So they kill them and throw them at our border," Lukashenko said. "There are already hundreds of these corpses here."

"That’s their human rights—they continue to talk about human rights, but there’s no fight for human rights," the head of state continued. Minsk had been helping and housing migrants at the border but will no longer do so following the imposition of sanctions, the president noted.

"Guys, you put a noose around my neck in the form of sanctions and demand that I protect the European Union from the influx of these migrants. It won’t happen," Lukashenko concluded.