Belarus parliament votes to suspend readmission of migrants

By YURAS KARMANAU
Associated Press

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Lawmakers in Belarus have voted to suspend an agreement with the European Union obliging the ex-Soviet nation to take back migrants that crossed its territory into the EU. The vote late Monday in the upper house of the Belarusian parliament formalizes the move that was announced by Belarus’ President Alexander Lukashenko in June. Thousands of people from Syria, Iraq and other conflict-ridden countries have traveled to Belarus in recent months in hopes of crossing into the Baltic states and Poland. Belarus’ EU neighbors — the three Baltic nations and Poland— have accused Lukashenko of encouraging the flow of migrants to use them as a weapon in what they described his “hybrid war” against the 27-nation bloc in retaliation for EU sanctions.