Merkel asks Putin to intervene with Belarus over migrants

Hundreds of migrants have been camping since Monday on the Belarus side of the border, near the village of Kuznica (Czarek Sokolowski/PA)

Chancellor Angela Merkel asked Russian President Vladimir Putin on Wednesday to intervene with Belarus over the migrant situation on that country’s border with Poland.

The chancellor’s office said Ms Merkel spoke with Mr Putin by phone and “underlined the fact that the instrumentalisation of migrants against the European Union by the Belarusian regime is inhuman and completely unacceptable, and asked the Russian president to exert his influence on the regime in Minsk”.