WARSAW — The UN refugee agency on Tuesday urged Poland to take in a
group of migrants believed to be from the Middle East who have been stranded on
the border with Belarus for more than two weeks.
اضافة اعلان
Thousands of migrants — mostly from the Middle East — have crossed the
border from
Belarus into the eastern EU states of Latvia, Lithuania, and Poland
in recent months.
Brussels believes the influx is being deliberately engineered by the regime in
Minsk in retaliation against EU sanctions — an accusation that Belarus denies —
and Poland has called it a "hybrid attack" on the bloc.
Poland has said it will not allow the migrants in, with Prime Minister
Mateusz Morawiecki saying that this would be giving in to "blackmail"
from Belarusian strongman Alexander Lukashenko.
Around 30 migrants have set up a makeshift encampment just inside Belarus
near the Polish village of Usnarz Gorny between lines of Belarusian and Polish
military personnel.
"We call on the Polish authorities to provide access to territory,
immediate medical assistance, legal advice and psychological support to these
people," Christine Goyer, UNHCR representative in Poland, said in a
statement.
"According to the 1951 Refugee Convention, to which Poland is
signatory, people seeking asylum should never be penalized, even for irregular
border crossing," Goyer said.
The UNHCR said it was "concerned by the alarming reports regarding a
group of several dozens of people" at the border, adding that they were
believed to be from Afghanistan and Iraq and may require medical attention and
international protection.
The Polish government has announced its intention to build a 2.5-meter high
barbed wire fence along a third of its border to prevent further arrivals.
"States have the legitimate right to manage their borders in accordance
with international law, however, they must also respect human rights, including
the right to seek asylum," the UNHCR statement said.
Read more
Region and World
.jpg)
.jpg)
