The UN said Tuesday that its investigators had not been granted access to the Belarus-Polish border but their probe had uncovered “dire conditions” for migrants camped there.
A UN rights office team had travelled to Poland from November 29 to December 3, but “was not granted access to the restricted border area,” spokeswoman Liz Throssell told reporters.
And “Belarus regrettably did not accept our request to visit,” she said.
“We urge the authorities of both countries to allow access to the border areas … and to stop practices that put refugees and other migrants at risk.”
Thousands of migrants – mostly from the Middle East – have camped in Belarus for weeks, often in bitter conditions, hoping to cross the Polish border and enter the European Union.
A number of people are reported to have died in the harsh conditions.
Western countries accuse Belarus of having engineered the migrant influx to pressure the bloc, which has imposed sanctions over the regime’s crackdown on the opposition and independent media.
Belarus denies this and has urged the EU to take in the migrants.
Throssel called Tuesday on “both countries to urgently address this appalling situation in line with their obligations under international human rights law and refugee law.”
