A spokesperson for the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights explained that their team had been able to go to Poland but “without having been authorized to access the border area”.
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It’s no. The UN complained on Tuesday, December 21, that Poland and Belarus had refused it access to the border area between the two countries where the organization intended to investigate the migration crisis.
A spokesperson for the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Liz Throssell, explained that their team was able to visit Poland but “without having had permission to access the border area”, while Belarus had blocked access to all of its territory.
“We urge the authorities of both countries to allow access to border areas for humanitarian and human rights representatives, journalists, lawyers, as well as representatives of civil society.”, she added. The High Commission also calls on Belarus and Poland to “urgently remedy” at “the desperate situation in which migrants and refugees find themselves at the borders” between the two countries.
Western countries accuse Belarus of orchestrating the influx of thousands of migrants to the EU’s borders since the summer in revenge for sanctions imposed after the disputed elections in 2020. Minsk has rejected these accusations and blamed Warsaw to violently push back migrants who have managed to cross the border.