The head of German diplomacy warned on Saturday against the hybrid war waged by Russia which could seek to divide Europe by also favoring an influx of refugees on its territory.
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“It is not only a war waged with weapons, it is also being waged (on the front of) energy and for this we have found an answer”, declared Annalena Baerbock at the congress of her ecologist party. which takes place in Bonn, western Germany.
But she expects the war will also be increasingly “waged with fear and division and that is precisely what we must avoid”.
The minister fears in particular an influx of refugees from countries other than Ukraine, “because this war is hybrid and other countries are participating in it”, accusing Serbia of contributing to a sharp increase in the arrival of migrants in Europe.
The EU Member States as a whole criticize this Balkan country for being a gateway to the Union for Turkish, Indian, Tunisian, Cuban and Burundian migrants, who do not need a visa to get there.
Refusing a situation “where people are used as a weapon”, Germany is in contact in particular with the Czech Republic and Slovakia to find solutions against this de facto reactivation of the “Balkan route”.
Serbia, a candidate for EU membership since 2012, but also close to Russia, is on this route which goes from Greece to Hungary or Croatia via North Macedonia or Albania.
Hundreds of thousands of Syrians fleeing the war, Afghans or Iraqis had taken it during the great migration crisis of 2015.
Since 2016 and the closure of the borders, the number of crossings had dropped considerably, but they are again on the rise this year.
Germany alone hosted nearly a million refugees in 2015, a massive influx that also contributed to the rise of the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party.
Since the Russian invasion of Ukraine on February 24, this country has already recorded the entry into its territory of more than a million refugees, the overwhelming majority of them women and children of Ukrainian nationality.