UN urges Belarus, Poland to address ‘grave conditions’ of refugees

GENEVA: Belarus and Poland are moving refugees back and forth across their borders and have little left for food, clean water or shelter, the UN human rights office said on Tuesday.
and urged both countries to “remove this appalling situation”.
Refugees and migrants who were interviewed by a UN human rights team traveling to Poland from 29 November to 3 December said they had faced violence or threats in Belarus and were left hungry and cold, the United Nations said. A spokesman for the Human Rights Office said.
“Interviewers described severe conditions on both sides of the border, with little or limited access to food, clean water and shelter, often amid freezing temperatures,” Elizabeth Throsel told reporters.
Most said that, while in Belarus, they had been beaten or threatened by security forces, whom some refugees said had also demanded “extortion” for food and water and forced them to cross the border. was forced.
Belarusian officials and the Polish government did not immediately comment when contacted by Reuters.
Thousands of migrants are stranded on the eastern border of the European Union.
Poland and the European Union accused Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko of encouraging migrants to travel to Belarus and cross the border illegally, in retaliation for sanctions imposed on Minsk for human rights abuses.
Belarus denies this and says the EU is to be blamed for the humanitarian crisis at the border.
Poland says the diaspora is Belarus’s responsibility and has rejected its offers of humanitarian aid.
Throsel said that many migrants and refugees interviewed by the UN team had crossed the border multiple times in both directions because of “recurring practices of both countries pushing people to or across the border”.
Some of them hid for weeks in the woods along the border with security forces, with one of the migrants making 26 attempts to get from Belarus to Poland.
The UN Human Rights Office, which said Belarus had not acceded to her request to travel, urged both countries to “ensure that the human rights of refugees and migrants are at the center of their actions”.