The dispute over migrants on the EU’s external border has been escalating for weeks. Belarusian ruler Lukashenko is now calling on the European Union to accept 2,000 of them. He sees Chancellor Merkel as a liability.

Belarusian ruler Alexander Lukashenko called the chancellor Angela Merkel (CDU) to negotiate a “humanitarian corridor” for 2,000 migrants in the European Union. In return, during a phone call with the chancellor, he offered to return 5,000 migrants to their home countries, Lukashenko’s spokeswoman Natalja Ismont said on Thursday, according to state agency Belta. Are there currently 7,000 expatriates Belarus cannot be independently verified.

With his advance, Lukashenko was rejected in Berlin. According to reports, the executive government holds the European Union responsible for questions related to the humanitarian condition of those stranded in Belarus. Government circles in Berlin said on Thursday: “Germany does not agree on this. This is a European problem that Germany is not tackling alone.”

Merkel has already called Lukashenko several times

Thousands of migrants have been waiting for several days at the Belarusian-Polish border. Many of them want to move to Germany. Europe accused Lukashenko of systematically bringing refugees from troubled areas to the EU’s outer border to pressure him. It is believed that he wants to avenge the sanctions.

Merkel and Lukashenko have spoken to each other twice this week. A special flight started in Minsk on Thursday to bring back more than 400 migrants Iraq to fly.