Lithuanian PM calls on EU Commission head to pressurize Belarus on migration exodus

Vilnius, Nov 18 (UNI/Sputnik) Lithuanian Prime Minister Ingrida Simonyte said she had held a phone conversation with European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and called on the latter to exert pressure on Belarus to stop the migration crisis on the Polish-Belarusian border.
“In a telephone conversation with President @vonderleyen, I stressed a need for the united EU stance in pressing [Belarusian President Alexander] Lukashenko to stop migration flows and let international humanitarian organizations do their job in Belarus. Appeasement to dictator will only encourage rogue behaviour,” Simonyte wrote on her Twitter page on late Wednesday.
Von der Leyen said that she had discussed with Simonyte and Lithuanian President Gitanas Nauseda the migration crisis and possible new sanctions against Belarus.
Poland, Latvia, and Lithuania have been repeatedly accusing Belarus of facilitating the movement of migrants to the EU to get back at Brussels for sanctions and urged for more punitive measures against Minsk. The latter rejects the accusation and maintains that it is unable to tackle the influx of migrants under the weight of Western sanctions.