Germany says legal standards must be preserved in Belarus migrant crisis

Legal standards on the treatment of migrants must be upheld at the EU's border with Belarus, Germany's Interior Minister Nancy Faeser said on Thursday, as she and her EU counterparts met to discuss what the bloc has called a "hybrid attack" by Minsk.

Europe accuses Belarus of flying in thousands of people from the Middle East and pushing them to cross into the European Union, which has been at odds with Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko since a disputed election last year.

Minsk denies fomenting the situation. Poland has come under fire for controversially pushing migrants back over the Belarusian border. This crisis has seen over a dozen migrants die since it started in July, rights organisations have said.

"[Belarusian President Alexander] Lukashenko's behaviour towards the EU is scandalous and inhuman, he capitalises on the distress of the people to play for a domestic audience," Germany's Faeser told reporters as she arrived in Brussels.

"It is important that legal standards are upheld at the border, which is why I would welcome a deployment of Frontex there, and it is just as important that aid organisations have access at all times," she added.

(Reuters, AFP)