EU weighs further sanctions on Belarus over illegal migrants

FILE PHOTO: An Iraqi migrant woman with children sits on the ground as they are surrounded by border guards and police officers after they crossed the Belarusian-Polish border during the ongoing migrant crisis, in Hajnowka, Poland October 14, 2021. REUTERS/Kacper Pempel

LUXEMBOURG (Reuters) -European Union foreign ministers debated new economic sanctions on Belarus on Monday, including on airlines, to halt what Brussels says is a deliberate policy by Minsk to fly in thousands of migrants and send them across the border.

The sanctions proposal, first voiced by Latvia on Monday in Luxembourg, was not initially on the agenda for EU foreign ministers and may have been a response to a decision by Belarus to expel France's ambassador at the weekend, diplomats said.