Warsaw, Dec. 26 (BNA) A prominent leader of the Catholic Church in Poland has called for migrants stranded at the border to be received and sheltered as temperatures drop.
The Polish News Agency (Dr.
When asked if he himself would receive refugees in his diocese, Pollack answered yes. He added that receiving people alone is not enough, and called for a comprehensive system, including state support.
For weeks, thousands of migrants and refugees have tried to cross the EU’s external borders from Belarus to Poland or the Baltic states. The European Union accuses the Belarusian authoritarian ruler Alexander Lukashenko of deliberately transporting people from crisis regions to Minsk in order to smuggle them into the European Union.
The United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights and aid groups accuse Poland and Belarus of human rights abuses, as Warsaw returns refugees across the border without allowing them to apply for asylum.
Meanwhile, Belarus is preventing refugees from returning to Minsk, forcing them to stay at the border.
Pollack also commented on whether religious people were more willing to help those in need, after surveys in Poland indicated that Catholics in Poland were less supportive of refugees than non-believers.
“If these surveys reflect the actual beliefs of believers, then to me it means an even more urgent call to reaffirm the gospel’s call to help those in need,” he said.
MI