Migrants stranded in cold at Belarusian-Polish border

MINSK, Belarus – Migrants seeking to flee conflict for the prospect of better lives in Europe continue to wait in a camp they set up at the Belarusian border with Poland.

Most of them who came to Belarus with a visa from Iraq continue to wait at Belarus' Bruzgi border point in Grodno despite cold weather conditions.

More humanitarian aid for the migrants, including over 2,000 children and women, is distributed and tents are set up by the Belarusian army primarily to meet their food and heating needs.

In addition to firewood, garbage cans and mobile toilets were also brought to the camp by the Belarusian authorities.

Viktor Liskovich, the chairman of the Standing Commission on Education, Science, Culture and Social Development of the Council of the Republic, said places for a capacity of 400 people have been prepared in sanatoriums for the children in the camp, while the families do not currently want to send their children.

Also, new groups continue to arrive at the camp to cross to Poland. People in the camp have made frequent attempts to cross into Poland day and night.

Polish police said they arrested some Georgian, Polish, and Syrian nationals on suspicion of human trafficking.

The Belarusian State Border Committee said that around 60 migrants who crossed from Belarus to Poland, but were kept waiting near the border fence, were taken into the country by the Polish Border Guard.

The migrants were taken to an unknown location, and a few hours later, this group was pushed back to Belarusian territory by the Polish security forces from another part of the border, the committee said, adding that the migrants then joined the camp.

- Migrant crisis on border

In October, Belarus suspended an agreement with the EU, obliging the country to take back migrants that crossed its territory and into the EU.

The EU accuses the Belarusian administration of "using irregular migration as a tool" and "trying to destabilize the EU" by sending migrants to the borders of EU countries Poland, Lithuania, and Latvia.

Polish authorities announced that they would not allow the migrants to enter the country and would send those who managed to enter back to Belarus.

Belarus is accusing Poland of not providing humane treatment for people seeking to migrate to Europe while the Polish administration accused Belarus of using these people as a political tool.

The EU accused the Belarusian government of "using immigrants and encouraging them to go to EU borders.”

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen called on EU member states to approve an expanded sanctions regime against Belarusian officials amid the border crisis.

According to the latest EU figures, 7,935 people tried to enter the bloc via the Belarusian-EU border in 2021, up sharply from just 150 last year.

Polish authorities stepped up border protection Monday and mobilized more than 12,000 troops after a large group of migrants started marching toward the country's frontier with Belarus accompanied by the Belarusian military.

*Writing by Seda Sevencan in Istanbul