The border crisis has affected Latvia and Lithuania, which are also European Union member states neighboring Belarus.
Lukashenko, who has led Belarus since 1994, launched a crackdown on protesters in the wake of the presidential election. Those imprisoned included members of the country’s ethnic Polish minority.
At the start of August, Poland gave a humanitarian visa to the Belarusian athlete Krystina Timanovskaya, who defied an order to fly home early from the Tokyo Olympics.
Gądecki thanked individuals and groups helping those in need at the border, including Caritas Poland, Poland’s largest charitable organization.
“The Catholic Church in Poland declares its readiness to join in the search for the best solutions, which -- within the framework of the legal order -- will serve the common good widely understood,” the 71-year-old archbishop said.
“Therefore, I would like to appeal for consent to launch humanitarian corridors, which Caritas Poland has declared its readiness to coordinate since 2016.”
“This mechanism, which has already been tested in other countries, makes it possible to provide concrete help to the neediest victims of wars and persecutions in a safe and fully controlled way.”
He added that “precisely controlled migration processes” were preferable to “chaotic migration, at the hands of gangs of smugglers.”
“While expressing thanks for the help given to Afghans a few weeks ago, I appeal today to all people of goodwill to treat service and assistance to foreigners coming to Poland as an opportunity to practice the love of neighbor, which is the cornerstone of our faith,” he concluded, asking for prayers for refugees and migrants.
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