Migrants stuck on freezing border as EU, US spat with Belarus intensifies

European countries and the US condemned Belarus at an emergency UN Security Council meeting over a crisis that has seen hundreds of migrants trapped on the Polish border. The standoff has seen Minsk threaten to cut off gas supplies to the EU, while Turkey has issued a flight ban on passengers from the Middle East heading to Belarus.

Hundreds of migrants, mainly Kurds, have been stuck for days on the Belarusian-Polish border in near-freezing temperatures. Leonid Shcheglov BELTA/AFP

Turkey on Friday barred people from several Middle Eastern countries from flying to Belarus, as pressure increased on Minsk to end a migrant crisis on its border with EU member Poland.

The Turkish Civil Aviation Authority said citizens of Iraq, Syria and Yemen would not be allowed on flights from Turkey to Belarus because of "the problem of illegal border crossings between the European Union and Belarus".

It said citizens of these countries would be prevented from buying tickets or boarding flights to Belarus until further notice.

It was the first move to start preventing migrants from entering Belarus, which is being accused of luring them into the country to send over the border into Poland in revenge for Western sanctions.

The bloc severed contacts with Belarus strongman Alexander Lukashenko and imposed sanctions after a heavy crackdown on the opposition following a disputed presidential election last year.

Hundreds of migrants, mainly Kurds, have been stuck for days on the Belarusian-Polish border in near-freezing temperatures Leonid Shcheglov BELTA/AFP

Stuck for days

Around 2,000 migrants, mainly Kurds, have been stuck for days on the Belarusian-Polish border in camps in near-freezing temperatures, with aid groups warning of a looming humanitarian catastrophe.

Poland is refusing to allow the migrants to cross, has declared a state of emergency in the area and has deployed thousands of troops along the border.

Journalists and charity workers have been banned from the immediate border area by Polish authorities, but many videos have made it through to social media, showing the tense situation.

#Belarus This morning on the border. Migrants are closely monitored by the Belarusian special services, as the Polish Defense Ministry reported. The BY State Committee said that around 200 migrants arrived at the border most recently. More than 2,000 should be there at the moment pic.twitter.com/9agusENUr8

— Hanna Liubakova (@HannaLiubakova) November 11, 2021

'Diversion'

Estonia, France, Ireland, Norway, the United States and Britain raised the migrant crisis during a closed-door emergency meeting of the 15-member UN security council on Thursday.

They condemned "the orchestrated instrumentalisation of human beings whose lives and well-being have been put in danger for political purposes by Belarus," according to their joint statement.

Minsk is aiming at "destabilising neighboring countries and the European Union's external border and diverting attention away from its own increasing human rights violations."

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The statement made no mention of Belarus ally Russia, which before the meeting rejected western allegations that it was working in conjunction with Minsk to send the migrants over the EU's eastern border into Poland.

Russian President Vladimir Putin told Europe on Thursday that it should "restore contacts" with Minsk if it wants to resolve the crisis.

In his second phone call with German Chancellor Angela Merkel in as many days, Putin "spoke in favour of restoring contacts between EU states and Belarus in order to resolve this problem," the Kremlin said in a statement.

New sanctions

The EU has so far refused any direct contacts with Lukashenko, who on Thursday warned that any new sanctions could see Minsk cut off natural gas transit to Europe.

However, Russia said Friday it will continue supplying gas to Europe regardless of Lukashenko's threats.

"Russia has been, is and will remain a country that fulfills all obligations to provide European consumers with gas," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters.

The EU is expected to decide next week to impose new sanctions on Belarus for human trafficking because of the migrant crisis.