The UN spoke about the obstacles to migrants on the Polish-Belarusian border
Photo: Maxim Shemetov / Reuters
The UN spoke about the obstacles that prevent migrants from getting to the Polish-Belarusian border, and called on Poland to provide access to the border territory to help illegal immigrants. This was reported by RIA Novosti with reference to the official representative of the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees Katerina Kitidi.
According to her, not only humanitarian organizations, but also lawyers, media, doctors, volunteers cannot get to migrants. “UNHCR continues to urge the Polish authorities to ensure unrestricted access to migrants, asylum seekers and refugees in the emergency zone, as indicated in the 1991 agreement signed by the UNHCR and the Polish Foreign Ministry and based on our mandate,” the organization said.
Kitidi drew attention to the fact that the UN regularly visits detention centers for migrants and provides support to persons seeking international protection in Poland and Belarus. “We have increased financial assistance to NGOs that provide legal assistance to people undergoing the asylum procedure. If we receive distress signals from people at the border, we coordinate with our partners to save lives, ”she concluded.
The migration crisis on the border of Belarus and the European Union began at the end of May. Large groups of illegal migrants from Africa and the Middle East began to storm the borders of Lithuania, Poland and Latvia in the hope of obtaining asylum. The European authorities believe that Minsk is using its national tour operator Tsentrkurort to transport illegal immigrants to the EU borders in order to provoke a migration crisis and put political pressure on Brussels.
On December 15, it became known that several dozen illegal immigrants threw stones at a military vehicle with Polish border guards as it drove past the barriers. The attackers at that moment were on the territory of Belarus. Warsaw believes that this attack could have been planned by the Belarusian security forces.
