WHO concerned as migrant crisis deepens
COPENHAGEN: The World Health Organisation (WHO) said on Friday it was “very concerned” about the health situation of thousands of migrants stranded in Belarus amid a border standoff with the European Union (EU).
We urge “all states to protect the right to health of refugees and migrants along the Belarusian border, many of whom need medical assistance,” said WHO Europe director Hans Kluge.
“I am very concerned about the thousands of vulnerable people who are stranded in no-man’s land on Belarus’ borders with Poland, Latvia and Lithuania, at the mercy of the weather as winter fast approaches,” he said.
Hundreds of migrants, mainly Kurds, have been stuck for days on the Belarusian-polish border in near-freezing temperatures, with aid groups warning of a looming humanitarian catastrophe.
At least 10 have died in the region, seven of them on the Polish side of the border, according to the Polish daily Gazeta Wyborcza.
Western states accuse the Belarusian government of luring them to the country and sending them to cross into Poland in retaliation for sanctions over Minsk’s crackdown on the opposition.
Turkey banned Syrian, Yemeni and Iraqi citizens from flights to Minsk on Friday, potentially closing off one of the routes used by migrants that the EU said have been flown in by Belarus to create a deliberate humanitarian crisis on its frontier.
Thousands of migrants, mainly from the Middle East, are sheltering in freezing conditions in the woods on the frontiers between Belarus and the EU states Poland and Lithuania, which are refusing to let them cross.
Turkey has denied playing a direct role by allowing its territory to be used to ferry in migrants. But Minsk airport’s website listed six flights arriving from Istanbul on Friday, the most from any city outside the former Soviet Union.
Belarusian Defence Minister Viktor Khrenin warned of a harsh military response to any attacks following a migrant crisis on the border with EU member Poland.
In an effort to tackle a migrant crisis on the border with Belarus, Poland has moved 15,000 troops to the frontier, put up a fence topped with barbed wire and approved the construction of a wall.
Khrenin said it appeared that Poland wanted to drag Europe into a full-blown military conflict with Belarus and that the build-up of foreign troops on the Belarusian border was “in no way connected” with the migrant crisis.