The number of refugees from Ukraine has reached 160,000 in Belarus and is not growing now, Belarusian Foreign Minister Vladimir Makei said in an interview with the United Nations Radio, whose transcript has been published on the republican foreign political agency’s website on Sept. 26.
“The problem [forced migration and refugees] should be resolved. We are feeling this ourselves, we have over 160,000 refugees from Ukraine. Now their numbers do not rise and stopped growing. But we had to undertake in due time urgent decisions, which should have resulted in these people not feeling themselves like those in some trouble,” Makei said.
At the meetings with representatives of several European countries during the events at the September UN General Assembly session in New York he told that “the refugees, who arrived in some or another country, do not always abide by the laws, which are in effect in this country, and do not always behave adequately,” he said.
“The corresponding balance should be here that is society’s readiness to accept these refugees, but also the refugees’ readiness to integrate into one or another society in one or another country. This is very important,” Makei said.
The state ought to provide the certain legal framework to integrate refugees in one or another society, and the private business should also be involved in this, the Belarusian foreign minister said.
“Of course, the problem is global, but we, in Belarus, have resolved it at this stage. We hope that there will be no more such waves [of migration] in the future. But, we are observing what is happening in Europe from a distance, think that it is needed to make rapid, clear-cut and concrete decisions, otherwise, the Europeans will soon think about the retaining of European identity,” Makei said.
