2 yıl önce

Polish volunteers call on govt to allow help for migrants and refugees

They gathered in the eastern town of Hajnowka, where they chanted "the forest is not a place for people".

AP

Rights groups have criticised Poland's nationalist government over its treatment of migrants and refugees with accusations of failure to provide food and shelter.

Polish volunteers have gathered in the city of Hajnowka to call on their country's government to allow them to help migrants and refugees who are stuck in a cold and soggy forest in the country's eastern border area.

"Refugees escaped death. Those people fight for their lives. They are not our enemies, " said Joanna Stanczyk, member of the Women's Congress of Wroclaw on Saturday.

Hajnowka is approximately 20 kilometres from the country's border with Belarus, but volunteers want access into the currently sealed border area to help migrants and refugees, in order to distribute warm clothes and food for those stuck in the forest after crossing from Belarus.

"The forest is not a place for people," a Polish volunteer chanted.

A state of emergency was introduced on 31 August 2021 by the Polish government in the country's two districts neighbouring Belarus. Authorities allow only local citizens to enter the three-kilometre wide border zone, which includes 183 villages and towns.

More than a dozen dead

At least 12 people have died in the area in recent weeks from the harsh conditions in the border zone, including a one-year-old whose death was reported on Thursday by a Polish humanitarian organisation.

Polish authorities said on Friday there are no more migrants and refugees camping along the Belarus side of the European Union's eastern border, but attempts at illegally crossing into the bloc's territory are continuing.

Hundreds of Iraqis flew back home Thursday from Belarus after abandoning their hopes of reaching the EU. Still, many migrants and refugees hoping to reach European soil remained in a heated warehouse that Belarus recently made available near the border. The migrants and refugees had been camping in a cold and wet forest since November 8.

Tensions flared at the Poland-Belarus border in recent days, with about 2,000 people trapped between forces from the two countries. The UN refugee agency says about half the migrants and refugees at the border area were women and children.