JERSEY CITY, NJ – U.S. Senator Bob Menendez (D-N.J.), Chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, today issued the following statement condemning the Lukashenka regime’s politically-motivated trafficking of thousands of migrants at the Eastern borders of the EU and NATO:
“I condemn in the strongest possible terms the Lukashenka regime’s trafficking of vulnerable migrant families to the borders of Poland, Lithuania, and Latvia to instigate a political and humanitarian crisis.
“The real and desperate plight of millions of people across the world being forced to flee their homes due to conflict, persecution, and severe climate-related events must never be coopted by cynical dictators desperate to advance their own political interests at any cost.
“From hijacking planes to arrest journalists, torturing its own people, stealing elections and now trying to create a migration crisis, Lukashenka and his benefactors in Moscow will continue to find a united front of resolve and unrelenting solidarity for the people of Belarus and against their reign of terror.
“I am in close contact with our European partners and NATO allies as they are forced to contend with this latest grotesque hybrid attack using human lives and have reiterated my firm support for them as Chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.
“I urge President Biden to take urgent action in coordination with our European partners to expand the international sanctions effort against the Lukashenka regime.”
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