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Refugees in Belarus on the border with Poland
Photo: Ramil Nasibulin / AP
For months, refugees from Iraq and Syria have been trying to get into the EU from Belarus. So far, at least ten people are said to have died. The refugees are desperate and their situation is getting worse day by day, said Kyle McNally, a humanitarian advisor at the aid organization Doctors Without Borders, to SPIEGEL. He has just been to Belarus and warns: "If the EU heads of state and government and the Belarusian leadership continue like this, more people will die at the border."
The temperatures there now drop below zero at night.
Up to 4,000 people are waiting in the vicinity of trunk road 6 near Kuznica, hundreds more are believed to be in the forests.
To this day, teams from his organization have not had access to the border region in Poland and Belarus, said McNally: "We urgently need it in order to finally be able to take care of the refugees."
Brussels and the EU would measure "with two standards", criticized the representative of the aid organization "Doctors Without Borders".
The heads of state and government of the EU are very quick to demand unconditional and unhindered access for humanitarian aid when it comes to distant countries far away from Europe.
"But when people suffer or die at the EU border, the EU politicians remain silent."
Injuries from blows with rifle butts and kicks
In the Belarusian capital Minsk he met injured refugees, McNally reported: "I have seen people with injuries, caused by blows with rifle butts, kicks in the ribs, traces of electric batons in the neck." The people said they were Polish and Lithuanian Border guards who have been forced back and mistreated need rapid medical care.
"The violence at the border is completely unacceptable and must be stopped."
For weeks, thousands of refugees have been trying to get to Poland and Lithuania again and again, but are being forced back by security forces in the EU countries.
In Poland, 15,000 soldiers have now taken up positions at the border.
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