Authorities invite Polish journalists to Belarus’ side of border to cover migrant crisis

In a state­ment on its web­site, the min­istry said that it was “ready to assist in secur­ing an invi­ta­tion for employ­ees of Pol­ish media out­lets to the Belaru­sian side of the bor­der.”

The min­istry said that Belarus’ author­i­ties were con­sid­er­ing options for quick­ly accred­it­ing rep­re­sen­ta­tives of a num­ber of Pol­ish media out­lets and bring­ing them to the bor­der.

“We believe that such steps will con­tribute to the objec­tive and com­pre­hen­sive pre­sen­ta­tion of infor­ma­tion from the site where refugees have amassed and will pre­vent the spread of bla­tant dis­in­for­ma­tion,” the min­istry said.

The min­istry expressed indig­na­tion at the Pol­ish author­i­ties’ deci­sion to bar media out­lets from the bor­der area. It described the ban as “a gross vio­la­tion of jour­nal­ists’ right to car­ry out their pro­fes­sion­al activ­i­ties.” 

On Novem­ber 8, a large group of migrants, pre­sum­ably from Iraqi Kur­dis­tan, attempt­ed to force their way into Poland from the ter­ri­to­ry of Belarus near the Bruzhi/Kuźnica Biało­s­toc­ka cross­ing. They set­tled in a makeshift camp on the Belaru­sian side of the bor­der for the night.

On Novem­ber 9, Belarus’ State Bor­der Com­mit­tee (SBC) report­ed that the migrants’ phys­i­cal and psy­cho­log­i­cal con­di­tion was “extreme­ly dif­fi­cult and low.” “There is not enough water and food,” the SBC said. “There are no min­i­mal con­di­tions for dai­ly hygiene pro­ce­dures in the camp. The sit­u­a­tion is com­pli­cat­ed by the pres­ence of a sig­nif­i­cant num­ber of preg­nant women and infants among the refugees, who have to sleep on the ground with tem­per­a­tures close to zero [degrees Cel­sius].”