The European Union needs to reconsider its approach to migration and asylum issues at a time when migration has been made a weapon to undermine European democratic societies, Minister of the Interior Marija Golubeva said in an interview with CNN today.
She emphasized that the EU had already received many asylum seekers, but that its borders could not be open to mass migration organized by hostile countries when it was not possible to find out who would really be entitled to asylum. The Minister reiterated that Latvia will be ready to defend Europe's external border if a mass flow would be directed towards Latvia. "This is our duty both in terms of our national security and as a EU Member State,” the Minister emphasized.
Golubeva believes that Lukashenko is blackmailing and terrorizing the European Union in order to recognize him as president, despite the lost elections.
“The situation of the victims of his hybrid operation is tragic. We need to see them as individual human beings and not a dark horde. However, this does not mean that we need to open the borders so that Lukashenko can use them for his own purposes,” the Minister of the Interior said.
She emphasized: “We need to be a little more direct here in Europe and make it clear that we cannot process individual asylum applications at a border that is being massively violated.”
Marija Golubeva was interviewed live by Connect the World journalist Becky Anderson.
Prepared by:
Linda Curika
Adviser to the Minister of the Interior on public relations