U.N urges Belarus, Poland to address border situation
The U.N. Human Rights office has urged Bearus and Poland to address the situation of pushing refugees back and forth across their border and leaving them with little if any food, clean water or shelter.
A spokesperson for the UN Human Rights office said, refugees and migrants interviewed by a UN human rights team on a trip to Poland said, they had suffered violence or threats in Belarus and been left hungry and cold.
“Those interviewed described dire conditions on both sides of the border, with no or limited access to food, clean water and shelter, often amid freezing temperatures,” Elizabeth Throssell said.
Most said that, while in Belarus, they had been beaten or threatened by security forces, who some refugees said had also demanded extortionate sums for food and water and forced them to cross the border.
Thousands of migrants are stuck on the European Union’s eastern frontier.
Poland and the EU accuse Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko of encouraging the migrants to travel to Belarus and cross the border illegally as revenge for sanctions imposed on Minsk over human rights abuses.
“The migration route, controlled and organised by the Belarusian services, is only a tool used by the regime in Minsk,” he said.
Some of them hid from security forces for weeks in the forest along the border, with one making 26 attempts to cross from Belarus to Poland.
The UN Human Rights office, which said Belarus had not accepted its request to visit, urged both countries to ensure that refugees and migrants human rights are at the centre of their actions.
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Kamila/Reuters
